History of the Americas

A true-color image of the Americas. Much of the information in the image come from a single remote-sensing modevice—NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer, or MODIS, flying over 700 km above the Earth on board the Terra satellite in 2001.

The ancestors of today's American Indigenous peoples were the Paleo-Indians; they were hunter-gatherers who migrated into North America. The most popular theory asserts that migrants came to the Americas via Beringia, the land mass now covered by the ocean waters of the Bering Strait. Small lithic stage peoples followed megafauna like bison, mammoth (now extinct), and caribou, thus gaining the modern nickname "big-game hunters." Groups of people may also have traveled into North America on shelf or sheet ice along the northern Pacific coast.

European colonization of the Americas led to the rise of new cultures, civilizations and eventually states, which resulted from the fusion of Native American and European traditions, peoples and institutions. The transformation of American cultures through colonization is evident in architecture, religion, gastronomy, the arts and particularly languages, the most widespread being Spanish (376 million speakers), English (348 million) and Portuguese (201 million). The colonial period lasted approximately three centuries, from the early 16th to the early 19th centuries, when Brazil and the larger Hispanic American nations declared independence. The United States obtained independence from England much earlier, in 1776, while Canada formed a federal dominion in 1867. Others remained attached to their European parent state until the end of the 19th century, such as Cuba and Puerto Rico which were linked to Spain until 1898. Smaller territories such as Guyana obtained independence in the mid-20th century, while certain Caribbean islands remain part of a European power to this day.

The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the exact dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion.[1] The traditional theory has been that these early migrants moved into the Beringia land bridge between eastern Siberia and present-day Alaska around 40,000 – 17,000 years ago, when sea levels were significantly lowered due to the Quaternary glaciation.[1][2] These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocenemegafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets.[3] Another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific Northwest coast to South America.[4] Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea level rise of a hundred meters following the last ice age.[5]

Archaeologists contend that the Paleo-Indian migration out of Beringia (eastern Alaska), ranges from 40,000 to around 16,500 years ago.[6][7][8] This time range is a hot source of debate. The few agreements achieved to date are the origin from Central Asia, with widespread habitation of the Americas during the end of the last glacial period, or more specifically what is known as the late glacial maximum, around 16,000 – 13,000 years before present.[8][9]

The American Journal of Human Genetics released an article in 2007 stating "Here we show, by using 86 complete mitochondrialgenomes, that all Indigenous American haplogroups, including Haplogroup X (mtDNA), were part of a single founding population."[10] Amerindian groups in the Bering Strait region exhibit perhaps the strongest DNA or mitochondrial DNA relations to Siberian peoples. The genetic diversity of Amerindian indigenous groups increase with distance from the assumed entry point into the Americas.[11][12] Certain genetic diversity patterns from West to East suggest, particularly in South America, that migration proceeded first down the west coast, and then proceeded eastward.[13] Geneticists have variously estimated that peoples of Asia and the Americas were part of the same population from 42,000 to 21,000 years ago.[14]

New studies shed light on the founding population of indigenous Americans, suggesting that their ancestry traced to both east Asian and western Eurasians who migrated to North America directly from Siberia. A 2013 study in the journal Nature reported that DNA found in the 24,000-year-old remains of a young Boy in Mal’ta Siberia suggest that up to one-third of the indigenous Americans may have ancestry that can be traced back to western Eurasians, who may have "had a more north-easterly distribution 24,000 years ago than commonly thought"[15] Professor Kelly Graf said that "Our findings are significant at two levels. First, it shows that Upper Paleolithic Siberians came from a cosmopolitan population of early modern humans that spread out of Africa to Europe and Central and South Asia. Second, Paleoindian skeletons with phenotypic traits atypical of modern-day Native Americans can be explained as having a direct historical connection to Upper Paleolithic Siberia." A route through Beringia is seen as more likely than the Solutrean hypothesis.[16]

Several thousand years after the first migrations, the first complex civilizations arose as hunter-gatherers settled into semi-agricultural communities. Identifiable sedentary settlements began to emerge in the so-called Middle Archaic period around 6000 BCE. Particular archaeological cultures can be identified and easily classified throughout the Archaic period.

In the late Archaic, on the north-central coastal region of Peru, a complex civilization arose which has been termed the Norte Chico civilization, also known as Caral-Supe. It is the oldest known civilization in the Americas and one of the five sites where civilization originated independently and indigenously in the ancient world, flourishing between the 30th and 18th centuries BC. It pre-dated the Mesoamerican Olmec civilization by nearly two millennia. It was contemporaneous with the Egypt following the unification of its kingdom under Narmer and the emergence of the first Egyptian hieroglyphics.

Monumental architecture, including earthwork platform mounds and sunken plazas have been identified as part of the civilization. Archaeological evidence points to the use of textile technology and the worship of common god symbols. Government, possibly in the form of theocracy, is assumed to have been required to manage the region. However, numerous questions remain about its organization. In archaeological nomenclature, the culture was pre-ceramic culture of the pre-Columbian Late Archaic period. It appears to have lacked ceramics and art.

Ongoing scholarly debate persists over the extent to which the flourishing of Norte Chico resulted from its abundant maritime food resources, and the relationship that these resources would suggest between coastal and inland sites.

The role of seafood in the Norte Chico diet has been a subject of scholarly debate. In 1973, examining the Aspero region of Norte Chico, Michael E. Moseley contended that a maritime subsistence (seafood) economy had been the basis of society and its early flourishing. This theory, later termed "maritime foundation of Andean Civilization" was at odds with the general scholarly consensus that civilization arose as a result of intensive grain-based agriculture, as had been the case in the emergence of civilizations in northeast Africa (Egypt) and southwest Asia (Mesopotamia).

While earlier research pointed to edible domestic plants such as squash, beans, lucuma, guava, pacay, and camote at Caral, publications by Haas and colleagues have added avocado, achira, and corn (Zea Mays) to the list of foods consumed in the region. In 2013, Haas and colleagues reported that maize was a primary component of the diet throughout the period of 3000 to 1800 BC.[18]

Cotton was another widespread crop in Norte Chico, essential to the production of fishing nets and textiles. Jonathan Haas noted a mutual dependency, whereby "The prehistoric residents of the Norte Chico needed the fish resources for their protein and the fishermen needed the cotton to make the nets to catch the fish."

In the 2005 book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, journalist Charles C. Mann surveyed the literature at the time, reporting a date "sometime before 3200 BC, and possibly before 3500 BC" as the beginning date for the formation of Norte Chico. He notes that the earliest date securely associated with a city is 3500 BC, at Huaricanga in the (inland) Fortaleza area.

The Norte Chico civilization began to decline around 1800 BC as more powerful centers appeared to the south and north along its coast, and to the east within the Andes Mountains.

The Olmec civilization was the first Mesoamerican civilization, beginning around 1600-1400 BC and ending around 400 BC. Mesoamerica is considered one of the six sites around the globe in which civilization developed independently and indigenously. This civilization is considered the mother culture of the Mesoamerican civilizations. The Mesoamerican calendar, numeral system, writing, and much of the Mesoamerican pantheon seem to have begun with the Olmec.

Some elements of agriculture seem to have been practiced in Mesoamerica quite early. The domestication of maize is thought to have begun around 7,500 to 12,000 years ago. The earliest record of lowland maize cultivation dates to around 5100 BC.[19] Agriculture continued to be mixed with a hunting-gathering-fishing lifestyle until quite late compared to other regions, but by 2700 BC, Mesoamericans were relying on maize, and living mostly in villages. Temple mounds and classes started to appear. By 1300/ 1200 BC, small centres coalesced into the Olmec civilization, which seems to have been a set of city-states, united in religious and commercial concerns. The Olmec cities had ceremonial complexes with earth/clay pyramids, palaces, stone monuments, aqueducts and walled plazas. The first of these centers was at San Lorenzo (until 900 bc). La Venta was the last great Olmec centre. Olmec artisans sculpted jade and clay figurines of Jaguars and humans. Their iconic giant heads - believed to be of Olmec rulers - stood in every major city.

The Olmec civilization ended in 400 BC, with the defacing and destruction of San Lorenzo and La Venta, two of the major cities. It nevertheless spawned many other states, most notably the Mayan civilization, whose first cities began appearing around 700-600 BC. Olmec influences continued to appear in many later Mesoamerican civilizations.

Cities of the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas were as large and organized as the largest in the Old World, with an estimated population of 200,000 to 350,000 in Tenochtitlan, the capital of the Aztec empire. The market established in the city was said to have been the largest ever seen by the conquistadors when they arrived. The capital of the Cahokians, Cahokia, located near modern East St. Louis, Illinois, may have reached a population of over 20,000. At its peak, between the 12th and 13th centuries, Cahokia may have been the most populous city in North America. Monk's Mound, the major ceremonial center of Cahokia, remains the largest earthen construction of the prehistoric New World.

These civilizations developed agriculture as well, breeding maize (corn) from having ears 2–5 cm in length to perhaps 10–15 cm in length. Potatoes, tomatoes, pumpkins, beans, avocados, and chocolate are now the most popular of the pre-Columbian agricultural products. The civilizations did not develop extensive livestock as there were few suitable species, although alpacas and llamas were domesticated for use as beasts of burden and sources of wool and meat in the Andes. By the 15th century, maize was being farmed in the Mississippi River Valley after introduction from Mexico. The course of further agricultural development was greatly altered by the arrival of Europeans.

The Iroquois League of Nations or "People of the Long House", based in present-day upstate and western New York, had a confederacy model from the mid-15th century. It has been suggested that their culture contributed to political thinking during the development of the later United States government. Their system of affiliation was a kind of federation, different from the strong, centralized European monarchies.[20][21][22]

Leadership was restricted to a group of 50 sachemchiefs, each representing one clan within a tribe; the Oneida and Mohawk people had nine seats each; the Onondagas held fourteen; the Cayuga had ten seats; and the Seneca had eight. Representation was not based on population numbers, as the Seneca tribe greatly outnumbered the others. When a sachem chief died, his successor was chosen by the senior woman of his tribe in consultation with other female members of the clan; property and hereditary leadership were passed matrilineally. Decisions were not made through voting but through consensus decision making, with each sachem chief holding theoretical veto power. The Onondaga were the "firekeepers", responsible for raising topics to be discussed. They occupied one side of a three-sided fire (the Mohawk and Seneca sat on one side of the fire, the Oneida and Cayuga sat on the third side.)[22]

Elizabeth Tooker, an anthropologist, has said that it was unlikely the US founding fathers were inspired by the confederacy, as it bears little resemblance to the system of governance adopted in the United States. For example, it is based on inherited rather than elected leadership, selected by female members of the tribes, consensus decision-making regardless of population size of the tribes, and a single group capable of bringing matters before the legislative body.[22]

Long-distance trading did not prevent warfare and displacement among the indigenous peoples, and their oral histories tell of numerous migrations to the historic territories where Europeans encountered them. The Iroquois invaded and attacked tribes in the Ohio River area of present-day Kentucky and claimed the hunting grounds. Historians have placed these events as occurring as early as the 13th century, or in the 17th century Beaver Wars.[23]

Through warfare, the Iroquois drove several tribes to migrate west to what became known as their historically traditional lands west of the Mississippi River. Tribes originating in the Ohio Valley who moved west included the Osage, Kaw, Ponca and Omaha people. By the mid-17th century, they had resettled in their historical lands in present-day Kansas, Nebraska, Arkansas and Oklahoma. The Osage warred with Caddo-speaking Native Americans, displacing them in turn by the mid-18th century and dominating their new historical territories.[23]

Chichimeca was the name that the Mexica (Aztecs) generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian". The name was adopted with a pejorative tone by the Spaniards when referring especially to the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples of northern Mexico.

The Zapotec emerged around 1500 years BCE. Their writing system influenced the later Olmec. They left behind the great city Monte Alban.

Olmec

The Olmec civilization emerged around 1200 BCE in Mesoamerica and ended around 400 BCE. Olmec art and concepts influenced surrounding cultures after their downfall. This civilization was thought to be the first in America to develop a writing system. After the Olmecs abandoned their cities for unknown reasons, the Maya, Zapotec and Teotihuacan arose.

Purepecha

The Purepecha civilization emerged around 1000 CE in Mesoamerica . They flourished from 1100 CE to 1530 CE. They continue to live on in the state of Michoacán. Fierce warriors, they were never conquered and in their glory years, successfully sealed off huge areas from Aztec domination.

Maya history spans 3,000 years. The Classic Maya may have collapsed due to changing climate in the end of the 10th century.

Toltec

The Toltec were a nomadic people, dating from the 10th - 12th century, whose language was also spoken by the Aztecs.

Teotihuacan

Teotihuacan (4th century BCE - 7/8th century CE) was both a city, and an empire of the same name, which, at its zenith between 150 and the 5th century, covered most of Mesoamerica.

Aztec

The Aztec having started to build their empire around 14th century found their civilization abruptly ended by the Spanish conquistadors. They lived in Mesoamerica, and surrounding lands. Their capital city Tenochtitlan was one of the largest cities of all time.

The oldest known civilization of the Americas was established in the Norte Chico region of modern Peru. Complex society emerged in the group of coastal valleys, between 3000 and 1800 BCE. The Quipu, a distinctive recording device among Andean civilizations, apparently dates from the era of Norte Chico's prominence.

Chavín

The Chavín established a trade network and developed agriculture by as early as (or late compared to the Old World) 900 BCE according to some estimates and archaeological finds. Artifacts were found at a site called Chavín in modern Peru at an elevation of 3,177 meters. Chavín civilization spanned from 900 BCE to 300 BCE.

Holding their capital at the great city of Cusco, the Inca civilization dominated the Andes region from 1438 to 1533. Known as Tahuantinsuyu, or "the land of the four regions", in Quechua, the Inca culture was highly distinct and developed. Cities were built with precise, unmatched stonework, constructed over many levels of mountain terrain. Terrace farming was a useful form of agriculture. There is evidence of excellent metalwork and even successful trepanation of the skull in Inca civilization.

Around 1000, the Vikings established a short-lived settlement in Newfoundland, now known as L'Anse aux Meadows. Speculations exist about other Old World discoveries of the New World, but none of these are generally or completely accepted by most scholars.

Spain sponsored a major exploration led by Christopher Columbus in 1492; it quickly led to extensive European colonization of the Americas. The Europeans brought Old World diseases which are thought to have caused catastrophic epidemics and a huge decrease of the native population. Columbus came at a time in which many technical developments in sailing techniques and communication made it possible to report his voyages easily and to spread word of them throughout Europe. It was also a time of growing religious, imperial and economic rivalries that led to a competition for the establishment of colonies.

Slavery has had a significant role in the economic development the New World after the colonization of the Americas by the Europeans. The cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane harvested by slaves became important exports for the United States and the Caribbean countries.

As a part of the British Empire, Canada immediately entered World War I when it broke out in 1914. Canada bore the brunt of several major battles during the early stages of the war, including the use of poison gas attacks at Ypres. Losses became grave, and the government eventually brought in conscription, despite the fact this was against the wishes of the majority of French Canadians. In the ensuing Conscription Crisis of 1917, riots broke out on the streets of Montreal. In neighboring Newfoundland, the new dominion suffered a devastating loss on July 1, 1916, the First day on the Somme.

The United States stayed out of the conflict until 1917, when it joined the Entente powers. The United States was then able to play a crucial role at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919 that shaped interwar Europe. Mexico was not part of the war, as the country was embroiled in the Mexican Revolution at the time.

The 1920s brought an age of great prosperity in the United States, and to a lesser degree Canada. But the Wall Street Crash of 1929 combined with drought ushered in a period of economic hardship in the United States and Canada. From 1936 to 1949, there was a popular uprising against the anti-Catholic Mexican government of the time, set off specifically by the anti-clerical provisions of the Mexican Constitution of 1917.

Once again, Canada found itself at war before its neighbors, however even Canadian contributions were slight before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The entry of the United States into the war helped to tip the balance in favour of the allies. Two Mexican tankers, transporting oil to the United States, were attacked and sunk by the Germans in the Gulf of Mexico waters, in 1942. The incident happened in spite of Mexico's neutrality at that time. This led Mexico to enter the conflict with a declaration of war on the Axis nations. The destruction of Europe wrought by the war vaulted all North American countries to more important roles in world affairs, especially the United States, which emerged as a "superpower".

The early Cold War era saw the United States as the most powerful nation in a Western coalition of which Mexico and Canada were also a part. In Canada, Quebec was transformed by the Quiet Revolution and the emergence of Quebec nationalism. Mexico experienced an era of huge economic growth after World War II, a heavy industrialization process and a growth of its middle class, a period known in Mexican history as "El Milagro Mexicano" (the Mexican miracle). The Caribbean saw the beginnings of decolonization, while on the largest island the Cuban Revolution introduced Cold War rivalries into Latin America.

Canada's Brian Mulroney not only ran on a similar platform but also favored closer trade ties with the United States. This led to the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement in January 1989. Mexican presidents Miguel de la Madrid, in the early 1980s and Carlos Salinas de Gortari in the late 1980s, started implementing liberal economic strategies that were seen as a good move. However, Mexico experienced a strong economic recession in 1982 and the Mexican peso suffered a devaluation. In the United States president Ronald Reagan attempted to move the United States back towards a hard anti-communist line in foreign affairs, in what his supporters saw as an attempt to assert moral leadership (compared to the Soviet Union) in the world community. Domestically, Reagan attempted to bring in a package of privatization and regulation to stimulate the economy.

The end of the Cold War and the beginning of the era of sustained economic expansion coincided during the 1990s. On January 1, 1994, Canada, Mexico and the United States signed the North American Free Trade Agreement, creating the world's largest free trade area. In 2000, Vicente Fox became the first non-PRI candidate to win the Mexican presidency in over 70 years. The optimism of the 1990s was shattered by the 9/11 attacks of 2001 on the United States, which prompted military intervention in Afghanistan, which also involved Canada. Canada did not support the United States' later move to invade Iraq, however.

In the U.S. the Reagan Era of conservative national policies, deregulation and tax cuts took control with the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. By 2010, political scientists were debating whether the election of Barack Obama in 2008 represented an end of the Reagan Era, or was only a reaction against the bubble economy of the 2000s (decade), which burst in 2008 and became the Late-2000s recession with prolonged unemployment.

Despite the failure of a lasting political union, the concept of Central American reunification, though lacking enthusiasm from the leaders of the individual countries, rises from time to time. In 1856–1857 the region successfully established a military coalition to repel an invasion by United States adventurer William Walker. Today, all five nations fly flags that retain the old federal motif of two outer blue bands bounding an inner white stripe. (Costa Rica, traditionally the least committed of the five to regional integration, modified its flag significantly in 1848 by darkening the blue and adding a double-wide inner red band, in honor of the French tricolor).

In 1907, a Central American Court of Justice was created. On December 13, 1960, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua established the Central American Common Market ("CACM"). Costa Rica, because of its relative economic prosperity and political stability, chose not to participate in the CACM. The goals for the CACM were to create greater political unification and success of import substitution industrialization policies. The project was an immediate economic success, but was abandoned after the 1969 "Football War" between El Salvador and Honduras. A Central American Parliament has operated, as a purely advisory body, since 1991. Costa Rica has repeatedly declined invitations to join the regional parliament, which seats deputies from the four other former members of the Union, as well as from Panama and the Dominican Republic.

In the 1960s and 1970s, the governments of Argentina, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay were overthrown or displaced by U.S.-aligned military dictatorships. These dictatorships detained tens of thousands of political prisoners, many of whom were tortured and/or killed (on inter-state collaboration, see Operation Condor). Economically, they began a transition to neoliberal economic policies. They placed their own actions within the United States Cold War doctrine of "National Security" against internal subversion. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Peru suffered from an internal conflict (see Túpac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and Shining Path). Revolutionary movements and right-wing military dictatorships have been common, but starting in the 1980s a wave of democratization came through the continent, and democratic rule is widespread now. Allegations of corruption remain common, and several nations have seen crises which have forced the resignation of their presidents, although normal civilian succession has continued.

^"Introduction". Government of Canada. Parks Canada. 2009. Archived from the original on 2011-04-24. Retrieved 2010-01-09. Canada's oldest known home is a cave in Yukon occupied not 12,000 years ago like the U.S. sites, but at least 20,000 years ago

^"Pleistocene Archaeology of the Old Crow Flats". Vuntut National Park of Canada. 2008. Archived from the original on 2008-10-22. Retrieved 2010-01-10. However, despite the lack of this conclusive and widespread evidence, there are suggestions of human occupation in the northern Yukon about 24,000 years ago, and hints of the presence of humans in the Old Crow Basin as far back as about 40,000 years ago.

1.
Americas
–
The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cordillera, a chain of mountains that runs the length of the west coast. The flatter eastern side of the Americas is dominated by river basins, such as the Amazon, St. Lawrence River / Great Lakes basin, Mississippi. Humans first settled the Americas from Asia between 42,000 and 17,000 years ago, a second migration of Na-Dene speakers followed later from Asia. The subsequent migration of the Inuit into the neoarctic around 3500 BCE completed what is regarded as the settlement by the indigenous peoples of the Americas. The first known European settlement in the Americas was by the Norse explorer Leif Ericson, however, the colonization never became permanent and was later abandoned. The voyages of Christopher Columbus from 1492 to 1502 resulted in permanent contact with European powers, diseases introduced from Europe and Africa devastated the indigenous peoples, and the European powers colonized the Americas. Mass emigration from Europe, including numbers of indentured servants. Decolonization of the Americas began with the American Revolution in 1776, the population is over 1 billion, with over 65% of them living in one of the three most populous countries. As of the beginning of the 2010s, the most populous urban agglomerations are Mexico City, New York, Sao Paulo, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro, all of them megacities. The name America was first recorded in 1507 in the Cosmographiae Introductio, apparently written by Matthias Ringmann and it first applied to both North and South America by Gerardus Mercator in 1538. Amerigen means land of Amerigo and derives from Amerigo and gen, America accorded with the feminine names of Asia, Africa, and Europa. When conceived as a continent, the form is generally the continent of America in the singular. However, without a context, singular America in English commonly refers to the United States of America. In some countries of the world, America is considered a continent encompassing the North America and South America subcontinents, the first inhabitants migrated into the Americas from Asia. Habitation sites are known in Alaska and the Yukon from at least 20,000 years ago, beyond that, the specifics of the Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research and discussion. Widespread habitation of the Americas occurred during the glacial maximum

2.
NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration efforts have led by NASA, including the Apollo Moon landing missions, the Skylab space station. Currently, NASA is supporting the International Space Station and is overseeing the development of the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, the agency is also responsible for the Launch Services Program which provides oversight of launch operations and countdown management for unmanned NASA launches. NASA shares data with various national and international such as from the Greenhouse Gases Observing Satellite. Since 2011, NASA has been criticized for low cost efficiency, from 1946, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics had been experimenting with rocket planes such as the supersonic Bell X-1. In the early 1950s, there was challenge to launch a satellite for the International Geophysical Year. An effort for this was the American Project Vanguard, after the Soviet launch of the worlds first artificial satellite on October 4,1957, the attention of the United States turned toward its own fledgling space efforts. This led to an agreement that a new federal agency based on NACA was needed to conduct all non-military activity in space. The Advanced Research Projects Agency was created in February 1958 to develop technology for military application. On July 29,1958, Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, a NASA seal was approved by President Eisenhower in 1959. Elements of the Army Ballistic Missile Agency and the United States Naval Research Laboratory were incorporated into NASA, earlier research efforts within the US Air Force and many of ARPAs early space programs were also transferred to NASA. In December 1958, NASA gained control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, NASA has conducted many manned and unmanned spaceflight programs throughout its history. Some missions include both manned and unmanned aspects, such as the Galileo probe, which was deployed by astronauts in Earth orbit before being sent unmanned to Jupiter, the experimental rocket-powered aircraft programs started by NACA were extended by NASA as support for manned spaceflight. This was followed by a space capsule program, and in turn by a two-man capsule program. This goal was met in 1969 by the Apollo program, however, reduction of the perceived threat and changing political priorities almost immediately caused the termination of most of these plans. NASA turned its attention to an Apollo-derived temporary space laboratory, to date, NASA has launched a total of 166 manned space missions on rockets, and thirteen X-15 rocket flights above the USAF definition of spaceflight altitude,260,000 feet. The X-15 was an NACA experimental rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft, developed in conjunction with the US Air Force, the design featured a slender fuselage with fairings along the side containing fuel and early computerized control systems

3.
Spectroradiometer
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Spectroradiometers are devices designed to measure the spectral power distribution of a source. Spectroradiometers typically take measurements of spectral irradiance and spectral radiance and this spectral data can be used to calculate CIE tristimulus values through mathematical integration. CIE chromaticity coordinates and luminosity can then be calculated, providing a description of the source’s color, including chromaticity, spectral power, illuminance. Spectroradiometers are stand-alone systems that work independently without the need to be connected to a PC and this makes them highly portable while maintaining the accuracy of a spectrometer. The field of spectroradiometry concerns itself with the measurement of absolute radiometric quantities in narrow wavelength intervals, the SI unit for spectral irradiance is W/m3. In practice, it is important note how radiant flux varies with direction, the size of the angle subtended by the source at each point on the surface. The spectral power distribution of a source describes how much flux reaches the sensor over a particular wavelength and this effectively expresses the per-wavelength contribution to the radiometric quantity being measured. The SPD of a source is shown as an SPD curve. The quality of a given system is a function of its electronics, optical components, software, power supply. Under ideal laboratory conditions and with highly trained experts, it is possible to achieve small errors in measurements, however, in many practical situations, there is the likelihood of errors on the order of 10 percent Several types of error are at play when taking physical measurements. The three basic types of error noted as the factors of accuracy of measurement are random, systematic. In the case of measurements, this could be thought of as noise from the detector, internal electronics. Errors of this type can be combated by longer integration times or multiple scans, systematic errors are offsets to the predicted “correct” value. Systematic errors generally occur due to the component of these measurements. Things such as errors, stray light, and incorrect settings, are all potential issues. Periodic errors arise from recurrent periodic or pseudo-periodic events, variations in temperature, humidity, air-motion, or AC interference could all be categorized as periodic error. In addition to these sources of error, a few of the more specific reasons for error in spectroradiometry include. The output signal is dependent on several factors, including magnitude of measured flux, its direction, its polarization, the essential components of a spectroradiometric system are as follows, Input optics that gather the electromagnetic radiation from the source

4.
Terra satellite
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Terra is a multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth. It is the flagship of the Earth Observing System, the name Terra comes from the Latin word for Earth. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 18,1999, aboard an Atlas IIAS vehicle and it was placed into a near-polar, sun-synchronous orbit at an altitude of 705km, with a 10, 30am descending node. Studies have used instruments on Terra to examine trends in global carbon monoxide, the data collected by Terra will ultimately become a new, 15-year global data set. In June and October 2008 the spacecraft was targeted by hackers who gained unauthorized access to its command and control systems, aqua Aura Man-made structures visible from space NASA Terra site

5.
Prehistory of the Americas
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their own written records, because many Christian Europeans of the time viewed such texts as heretical, men like Diego de Landa destroyed many texts in pyres, even while seeking to preserve native histories. Only a few documents have survived in their original languages, while others were transcribed or dictated into Spanish, giving modern historians glimpses of ancient culture. Indigenous American cultures continue to evolve after the pre-Columbian era, many of these peoples and their descendants continue traditional practices, while evolving and adapting new cultural practices and technologies into their lives. Now, the study of pre-Columbian cultures is most often based on scientific. Asian nomads are thought to have entered the Americas via the Bering Land Bridge, now the Bering Strait, genetic evidence found in Amerindians maternally inherited mitochondrial DNA supports the theory of multiple genetic populations migrating from Asia. Over the course of millennia, Paleo-Indians spread throughout North and South America, exactly when the first group of people migrated into the Americas is the subject of much debate. One of the earliest identifiable cultures was the Clovis culture, with sites dating from some 13,000 years ago, however, older sites dating back to 20,000 years ago have been claimed. Some genetic studies estimate the colonization of the Americas dates from between 40,000 and 13,000 years ago, the chronology of migration models is currently divided into two general approaches. The first is the short chronology theory with the first movement beyond Alaska into the New World occurring no earlier than 14, 000–17,000 years ago, followed by successive waves of immigrants. The second belief is the long chronology theory, which proposes that the first group of people entered the hemisphere at an earlier date, possibly 50. In that case, the Eskimo peoples would have arrived separately and at a later date, probably no more than 2,000 years ago. The North American climate was unstable as the ice age receded and it finally stabilized by about 10,000 years ago, climatic conditions were then very similar to todays. Within this timeframe, roughly pertaining to the Archaic Period, numerous archaeological cultures have been identified, the unstable climate led to widespread migration, with early Paleo-Indians soon spreading throughout the Americas, diversifying into many hundreds of culturally distinct tribes. The paleo-indians were hunter-gatherers, likely characterized by small, mobile bands consisting of approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family and these groups moved from place to place as preferred resources were depleted and new supplies were sought. During much of the Paleo-Indian period, bands are thought to have subsisted primarily through hunting now-extinct giant land animals such as mastodon, Paleo-Indian groups carried a variety of tools

6.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands

7.
South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in the last decades due to changing geopolitical dynamics. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east by the Atlantic Ocean, North America and it includes twelve sovereign states, a part of France, and a non-sovereign area. In addition to this, the ABC islands of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Trinidad and Tobago, South America has an area of 17,840,000 square kilometers. Its population as of 2005 has been estimated at more than 371,090,000, South America ranks fourth in area and fifth in population. Brazil is by far the most populous South American country, with more than half of the population, followed by Colombia, Argentina, Venezuela. In recent decades Brazil has also concentrated half of the regions GDP and has become a first regional power, most of the population lives near the continents western or eastern coasts while the interior and the far south are sparsely populated. Most of the continent lies in the tropics, the continents cultural and ethnic outlook has its origin with the interaction of indigenous peoples with European conquerors and immigrants and, more locally, with African slaves. Given a long history of colonialism, the majority of South Americans speak Portuguese or Spanish. South America occupies the portion of the Americas. The continent is delimited on the northwest by the Darién watershed along the Colombia–Panama border. Almost all of mainland South America sits on the South American Plate, South Americas major mineral resources are gold, silver, copper, iron ore, tin, and petroleum. These resources found in South America have brought high income to its countries especially in times of war or of rapid growth by industrialized countries elsewhere. However, the concentration in producing one major export commodity often has hindered the development of diversified economies and this is leading to efforts to diversify production to drive away from staying as economies dedicated to one major export. South America is one of the most biodiverse continents on earth, South America is home to many interesting and unique species of animals including the llama, anaconda, piranha, jaguar, vicuña, and tapir. The Amazon rainforests possess high biodiversity, containing a proportion of the Earths species. Brazil is the largest country in South America, encompassing around half of the land area

8.
Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. The combined population of Central America is between 41,739,000 and 42,688,190, Central America is a part of the Mesoamerican biodiversity hotspot, which extends from northern Guatemala through to central Panama. Due to the presence of several active faults and the Central America Volcanic Arc. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur frequently, these disasters have resulted in the loss of many lives. In the Pre-Columbian era, Central America was inhabited by the peoples of Mesoamerica to the north and west. Soon after Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish began to colonize the Americas, the seven states finally became independent autonomous states, beginning with Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Guatemala, followed by El Salvador, then Panama, and finally Belize. Middle America is usually thought to comprise Mexico to the north of the 7 states of Central America as well as Colombia, usually the whole of the Caribbean to the north-east and sometimes the Guyanas are also included. According to one source, the term Central America was used as a synonym for Middle America as recently as 1962, in Brazil, Central America comprises all countries between Mexico and Colombia, including those in the Caribbean. Mexico, in whole or in part, is included by British people. For the people living in the 5 countries formerly part of the Federal Republic of Central America there is a distinction between the Spanish language terms América Central and Centroamérica, in the Pre-Columbian era, the northern areas of Central America were inhabited by the indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica. Most notable among these were the Mayans, who had built numerous cities throughout the region, and the Aztecs, following Christopher Columbuss voyages to the Americas, the Spanish sent many expeditions to the region, and they began their conquest of Maya territory in 1523. Soon after the conquest of the Aztec Empire, Spanish conquistador Pedro de Alvarado commenced the conquest of northern Central America for the Spanish Empire. Beginning with his arrival in Soconusco in 1523, Alvarados forces systematically conquered and subjugated most of the major Maya kingdoms, including the Kiche, Tzutujil, Pipil, and the Kaqchikel. By 1528, the conquest of Guatemala was nearly complete, with only the Petén Basin remaining outside the Spanish sphere of influence, the last independent Maya kingdoms – the Kowoj and the Itza people – were finally defeated in 1697, as part of the Spanish conquest of Petén. In 1538, Spain established the Real Audiencia of Panama, which had jurisdiction over all land from the Strait of Magellan to the Gulf of Fonseca. This entity was dissolved in 1543, and most of the territory within Central America then fell under the jurisdiction of the Audiencia Real de Guatemala. This area included the current territories of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and the Mexican state of Chiapas, the president of the Audiencia, which had its seat in Antigua Guatemala, was the governor of the entire area

9.
Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island arcs that delineate the eastern and northern edges of the Caribbean Sea, in a wider sense, the mainland countries of Belize, Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana are often included due to their political and cultural ties with the region. Geopolitically, the Caribbean islands are usually regarded as a subregion of North America and are organized into 30 territories including sovereign states, overseas departments, and dependencies. From December 15,1954, to October 10,2010, there was a known as the Netherlands Antilles composed of five states. The West Indies cricket team continues to represent many of those nations, the region takes its name from that of the Caribs, an ethnic group present in the Lesser Antilles and parts of adjacent South America at the time of the Spanish conquest. The two most prevalent pronunciations of Caribbean are KARR-ə-BEE-ən, with the accent on the third syllable. The former pronunciation is the older of the two, although the variant has been established for over 75 years. It has been suggested that speakers of British English prefer KARR-ə-BEE-ən while North American speakers more typically use kə-RIB-ee-ən, usage is split within Caribbean English itself. The word Caribbean has multiple uses and its principal ones are geographical and political. The Caribbean can also be expanded to include territories with strong cultural and historical connections to slavery, European colonisation, the United Nations geoscheme for the Americas accords the Caribbean as a distinct region within the Americas. Physiographically, the Caribbean region is mainly a chain of islands surrounding the Caribbean Sea, to the north, the region is bordered by the Gulf of Mexico, the Straits of Florida and the Northern Atlantic Ocean, which lies to the east and northeast. To the south lies the coastline of the continent of South America, politically, the Caribbean may be centred on socio-economic groupings found in the region. For example, the known as the Caribbean Community contains the Co-operative Republic of Guyana. Bermuda and the Turks and Caicos Islands, which are in the Atlantic Ocean, are members of the Caribbean Community. The Commonwealth of the Bahamas is also in the Atlantic and is a member of the Caribbean Community. According to the ACS, the population of its member states is 227 million people. The geography and climate in the Caribbean region varies, Some islands in the region have relatively flat terrain of non-volcanic origin and these islands include Aruba, Barbados, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Saint Croix, the Bahamas, and Antigua

10.
Ice Age
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An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earths surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Within a long-term ice age, individual pulses of cold climate are termed glacial periods, in the terminology of glaciology, ice age implies the presence of extensive ice sheets in both northern and southern hemispheres. In 1742 Pierre Martel, an engineer and geographer living in Geneva, two years later he published an account of his journey. He reported that the inhabitants of that valley attributed the dispersal of erratic boulders to the glaciers, later similar explanations were reported from other regions of the Alps. In 1815 the carpenter and chamois hunter Jean-Pierre Perraudin explained erratic boulders in the Val de Bagnes in the Swiss canton of Valais as being due to glaciers previously extending further. An unknown woodcutter from Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland advocated a similar idea in a discussion with the Swiss-German geologist Jean de Charpentier in 1834, comparable explanations are also known from the Val de Ferret in the Valais and the Seeland in western Switzerland and in Goethes scientific work. Such explanations could also be found in parts of the world. When the Bavarian naturalist Ernst von Bibra visited the Chilean Andes in 1849–1850, meanwhile, European scholars had begun to wonder what had caused the dispersal of erratic material. From the middle of the 18th century, some discussed ice as a means of transport, the Swedish mining expert Daniel Tilas was, in 1742, the first person to suggest drifting sea ice in order to explain the presence of erratic boulders in the Scandinavian and Baltic regions. In 1795, the Scottish philosopher and gentleman naturalist, James Hutton, two decades later, in 1818, the Swedish botanist Göran Wahlenberg published his theory of a glaciation of the Scandinavian peninsula. He regarded glaciation as a regional phenomenon, only a few years later, the Danish-Norwegian geologist Jens Esmark argued a sequence of worldwide ice ages. In a paper published in 1824, Esmark proposed changes in climate as the cause of those glaciations and he attempted to show that they originated from changes in Earths orbit. During the following years, Esmarks ideas were discussed and taken over in parts by Swedish, Scottish, at the University of Edinburgh Robert Jameson seemed to be relatively open to Esmarks ideas, as reviewed by Norwegian professor of glaciology Bjørn G. Andersen. Jamesons remarks about ancient glaciers in Scotland were most probably prompted by Esmark, in Germany, Albrecht Reinhard Bernhardi, a geologist and professor of forestry at an academy in Dreissigacker, since incorporated in the southern Thuringian city of Meiningen, adopted Esmarks theory. In a paper published in 1832, Bernhardi speculated about former polar ice caps reaching as far as the zones of the globe. When he read his paper before the Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft, most scientists remained sceptical, finally, Venetz convinced his friend Jean de Charpentier. De Charpentier transformed Venetzs idea into a theory with a limited to the Alps. In fact, both men shared the same volcanistic, or in de Charpentiers case rather plutonistic assumptions, about the Earths history, in 1834, de Charpentier presented his paper before the Schweizerische Naturforschende Gesellschaft

11.
Old World
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The Old World consists of Africa, Europe, and Asia, regarded collectively as the part of the world known to Europeans before contact with the Americas. It is used in the context of, and contrast with and these regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they have a pronounced Iron Age period following the Bronze Age. The concept of the three continents in the Old World, viz. Asia, Africa, and Europe, goes back to classical antiquity and their boundaries as defined by Ptolemy and other geographers of antiquity were drawn along the Nile and Don rivers. This definition remained influential throughout the Middle Ages and the Early Modern period, the Old world has areas of North Africa, Eurasia, parts of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands. The mainland of Afro-Eurasia has been referred to as the World Island, the term may have been coined by Sir Halford John Mackinder in The Geographical Pivot of History. The equivalent of the Old World had names in some of its ancient cultures, including Midgard in Germanic cosmology, synoptic table of the principal old world prehistoric cultures Afro-Eurasia

12.
Voyages of Christopher Columbus
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For a very long time, it was believed that Columbus and his crew had been the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas. Columbus was an Italian–born navigator sailing for the Crown of Castile in search of a route to Asia, to access the sources of spices. This led to the discovery of a New World between Europe and Asia, Columbuss voyages led to the widespread knowledge that a new continent existed west of Europe and east of Asia. This breakthrough in science led to the exploration and colonization of the New World by Spain and other European sea powers. The search for a route to Asia continued in 1513 when Vasco Nuñez de Balboa crossed the narrow Isthmus of Panama to become the first European to sight the Pacific Ocean. The search was completed in 1521, when the Castilian Magellan expedition sailed across the Pacific, Portugal had been the main European power interested in pursuing trade routes overseas. Their next-door neighbors, Castile had been slower to begin exploring the Atlantic due to the bigger land area it had to re-conquer from the Moors. In 1492 the joint rulers of the Spanish nation conquered the Moorish kingdom of Granada and he proposed the king equip three sturdy ships and grant Columbus one years time to sail out west into the Atlantic, search for a western route to India, and return. Columbus also requested he be made Great Admiral of the Ocean Sea, appointed governor of any and all lands he discovered, the king submitted the proposal to his experts, who rejected it after several years. It was their opinion that Columbuss estimation of a travel distance of 2,400 miles was, in fact. In 1488 Columbus appealed to the court of Portugal, receiving a new invitation for an audience with King John II and this also proved unsuccessful, in part because not long afterwards Bartolomeu Dias returned to Portugal following a successful rounding of the southern tip of Africa. With an eastern sea route now under its control, Portugal was no longer interested in trailblazing a western route to Asia crossing unknown seas. Columbus traveled from Portugal to Spain to convince the Catholic Monarchs of Spain to finance the expedition, King Ferdinand II of Aragon married Queen Isabella I of Castile in 1469, uniting the two largest kingdoms into what would later be the Spanish Crown. They were known jointly as the Catholic Monarchs, and ruled their kingdoms independently, Columbus was granted an audience with them, on May 1,1489, he presented his plans to Queen Isabella, who referred them to a committee. They pronounced the idea impractical, and advised the monarchs not to support the proposed venture, after continually asking, nagging, begging, and crying for the monarchs to support his plan at the royal court and enduring two years of negotiations, Columbus finally succeeded in January 1492. Queen Isabellas forces had just conquered the Moorish Emirate of Granada, Isabella and Ferdinand received Columbus in the Alcázar in Córdoba to support his plans. The monarchs left it to the treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made Admiral of the Seas and would receive a portion of all profits, the terms were unusually generous but, as his son later wrote, the monarchs were not confident of his return

13.
Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, who, in his search for Asia, eventually, the Americas came to be known as the West Indies, a name still used to refer to the islands of the Caribbean Sea. This led to the blanket term Indies and Indians for the indigenous inhabitants, although some indigenous peoples of the Americas were traditionally hunter-gatherers—and many, especially in the Amazon basin, still are—many groups practiced aquaculture and agriculture. The impact of their agricultural endowment to the world is a testament to their time, although some societies depended heavily on agriculture, others practiced a mix of farming, hunting, and gathering. In some regions the indigenous peoples created monumental architecture, large-scale organized cities, chiefdoms, states, and empires. Many parts of the Americas are still populated by peoples, some countries have sizable populations, especially Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Greenland, Guatemala, Mexico. At least a different indigenous languages are spoken in the Americas. Some, such as the Quechuan languages, Aymara, Guaraní, Mayan languages, many also maintain aspects of indigenous cultural practices to varying degrees, including religion, social organization, and subsistence practices. Like most cultures, over time, cultures specific to many indigenous peoples have evolved to incorporate traditional aspects, some indigenous peoples still live in relative isolation from Western culture and a few are still counted as uncontacted peoples. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are the subject of ongoing research. According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the bridge of Beringia that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska was a glacial refugium because it had low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist, the Laurentide Ice Sheet covered most of North America, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska for thousands of years. Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single population, one that developed in isolation. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10–20,000 years, around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct Pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran Ice Sheets. Another route proposed involves migration - either on foot or using primitive boats - along the Pacific Northwest coast to the south, archeological evidence of the latter would have been covered by the sea level rise of more than 120 meters since the last ice age

14.
Paleo-Indians
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The prefix paleo- comes from the Greek adjective palaios, meaning old or ancient. The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic. Evidence suggests big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Eurasia into North America over a land and ice bridge, small isolated groups of hunter-gatherers migrated alongside herds of large herbivores far into Alaska. From c. 16,500 – c. 13,500 BCE, ice-free corridors developed along the Pacific coast and this allowed animals, followed by humans, to migrate south into the interior. The people went on foot or used primitive boats along the coastline, the precise dates and routes of the peopling of the New World are subject to ongoing debate. Stone tools, particularly projectile points and scrapers, are the evidence of the earliest human activity in the Americas. Crafted lithic flaked tools are used by archaeologists and anthropologists to classify cultural periods, scientific evidence links Indigenous Americans to Asian peoples, specifically eastern Siberian populations. There is evidence for at least two separate migrations, between 8000–7000 BCE the climate stabilized, leading to a rise in population and lithic technology advances, resulting in more sedentary lifestyle. The specifics of Paleo-Indian migration to and throughout the Americas, including the dates and routes traveled, are subject to ongoing research. These people are believed to have followed herds of now-extinct pleistocene megafauna along ice-free corridors that stretched between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets, another route proposed is that, either on foot or using primitive boats, they migrated down the Pacific coast to South America. Evidence of the latter would since have been covered by a sea rise of hundreds of meters following the last ice age. Archaeologists contend that Paleo-Indians migration out of Beringia, ranges from c. 40,000 – c. 16,500 years ago and this time range is a source of debate and promises to continue as such for years to come. However, alternative theories about the origins of Paleoindians exist, including migration from Europe, the Paleo-Indian would eventually flourish all over the Americas. These peoples were spread over a geographical area, thus there were regional variations in lifestyles. However, all the groups shared a common style of stone tool production, making knapping styles. Food would have been plentiful during the few months of the year. Lakes and rivers were teeming with many species of fish, birds, nuts, berries and edible roots could be found in the forests and marshes. The fall would have been a time because foodstuffs would have to be stored

15.
Hunter-gatherer
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A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was humanitys first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history, following the invention of agriculture, hunter-gatherers who did not change have been displaced or conquered by farming or pastoralist groups in most parts of the world. Only a few contemporary societies are classified as hunter-gatherers, and many supplement their activity with horticulture and/or keeping animals. In the 1970s, Lewis Binford suggested that humans were obtaining food via scavenging. Early humans in the Lower Paleolithic lived in forests and woodlands, which allowed them to collect seafood, eggs, nuts, and fruits besides scavenging. Rather than killing large animals for meat, according to this view and this hypothesis does not necessarily contradict the scavenging hypothesis, both subsistence strategies could have been in use – sequentially, alternating or even simultaneously. It remained the only mode of subsistence until the end of the Mesolithic period some 10,000 years ago and this specialization of work also involved creating specialized tools such as, fishing nets, hooks, and bone harpoons. The transition into the subsequent Neolithic period is defined by the unprecedented development of nascent agricultural practices. Agriculture originated and spread in different areas including the Middle East, Asia, Mesoamerica. Forest gardening was also being used as a production system in various parts of the world over this period. Forest gardens originated in prehistoric times along jungle-clad river banks and in the wet foothills of monsoon regions, in the gradual process of families improving their immediate environment, useful tree and vine species were identified, protected and improved, whilst undesirable species were eliminated. Eventually superior introduced species were selected and incorporated into the gardens, many groups continued their hunter-gatherer ways of life, although their numbers have continually declined, partly as a result of pressure from growing agricultural and pastoral communities. Many of them reside in the world, either in arid regions or tropical forests. Areas that were available to hunter-gatherers were—and continue to be—encroached upon by the settlements of agriculturalists. In the resulting competition for use, hunter-gatherer societies either adopted these practices or moved to other areas. In addition, Jared Diamond has blamed a decline in the availability of wild foods, as the number and size of agricultural societies increased, they expanded into lands traditionally used by hunter-gatherers. As a result of the now near-universal human reliance upon agriculture, archaeologists can use evidence such as stone tool use to track hunter-gatherer activities, including mobility. Most hunter-gatherers are nomadic or semi-nomadic and live in temporary settlements, mobile communities typically construct shelters using impermanent building materials, or they may use natural rock shelters, where they are available

16.
Beringia
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It includes the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi and Kamchatka Peninsulas in Russia as well as Alaska in the United States. The area includes land lying on the North American Plate and Siberian land east of the Chersky Range. Today, the land that is visible from the central part of the Bering land bridge are the Diomede Islands, the Pribilof Islands of St. Paul and St. George, St. Lawrence Island. The term Beringia was coined by the Swedish botanist Eric Hultén in 1937, during the ice ages, Beringia, like most of Siberia and all of North and Northeast China, was not glaciated because snowfall was very light. It was a grassland steppe, including the bridge, that stretched for hundreds of kilometres into the continents on either side. Before European colonization, Beringia was inhabited by the Yupik peoples on both sides of the straits and this culture remains in the region today along with others. In 2012, the governments of Russia and the United States announced a plan to establish a transboundary area of shared Beringian heritage. The underlying mechanism was first thought to be tectonics, but by 1930 changes in the icemass balance, the American arctic geologist David Hopkins redefined Beringia to include portions of Alaska and Northeast Asia. Beringia was later regarded as extending from the Verkhoyansk Mountains in the west to the Mackenzie River in the east. The distribution of plants in the genera Erythranthe and Pinus are good examples of this as genera members are found in Asia, during the Pleistocene epoch, global cooling led periodically to the expansion of glaciers and lowering of sea levels. This created land connections in various regions around the globe, today, the average water depth of the Bering Strait is 40–50 m, therefore the land bridge opened when the sea level dropped more than 50 m below the current level. Post-glacial rebound has continued to some sections of coast. During the last glacial period, enough of the water became frozen in the great ice sheets covering North America. For thousands of years the sea floors of many interglacial shallow seas were exposed, including those of the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea to the north, other land bridges around the world have emerged and disappeared in the same way. Beringias closeness to the sea created intermittent maritime cloud cover, which caused an interruption to the dry, in the Late Pleistocene, Beringia was a mosaic of biological communities. Commencing from c. 57,000 BP, steppe–tundra vegetation dominated large parts of Beringia with a diversity of grasses. There were patches of shrub tundra with isolated refugia of larch and spruce forests with birch and it has been proposed that the largest and most diverse megafaunal community residing in Beringia at this time could only have been sustained in a highly diverse and productive environment. These changes provided the most likely explanation for mammal migrations after c. 15,000 BP, as the warming provided increased forage for browsers, Beringia did not block the movement of most dry steppe-adapted large species such as saiga antelope, woolly mammoth, and caballid horses

17.
Bering Strait
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The Bering Strait is a strait of the Pacific, which borders with the Arctic to north. It is located between Russia and the United States, named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born explorer in the service of the Russian Empire, it lies slightly south of the Arctic Circle being at about 65°40 N latitude. The present Russia-US east-west boundary is at 168°5837 W and this view of how Paleo-Indians entered America has been the dominant one for several decades and continues to be the most accepted one. Numerous successful crossings without the use of a boat have also recorded since at least the early 20th century. As of 2012, the Russian coast of the Bering Strait has been a military zone. Through organized trips and the use of permits, it is possible for foreigners to visit. All arrivals must be through an airport or a cruise port, unauthorized travelers who arrive on shore after crossing the strait, even those with visas, may be arrested, imprisoned briefly, fined, deported and banned from future visas. Its depth varies between 30 metres and 50 metres and it borders with the Chukchi Sea to north and with the Bering Sea to south. The eastern coast belongs to the U. S. state of Alaska, notable towns that straddle the Strait include Nome and the small settlement of Teller. The western coast belongs to the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, a Federal subject of Russia, major towns that lie along the Strait include Lorino and Lavrentiya. The Diomede Islands lie midway in the Strait, the village in Little Diomede has a school which belongs to Alaskas Bering Strait School District. The earliest reference of the strait were from maps from the Polo family, from at least 1562, European geographers thought that there was a Strait of Anián between Asia and North America. In 1648, Semyon Dezhnyov probably passed through the strait, Danish-born Russian navigator Vitus Bering entered it in 1728. In 1732, Mikhail Gvozdev crossed it for the first time, adolf Erik Nordenskiöld in 1878–79 sailed along the northern coast of Siberia, thereby proving that there was no northern land bridge from Asia to North America. In March 1913, Captain Max Gottschalk crossed from the east cape of Siberia to Shishmaref, Alaska, on dogsled via Little and he was the first documented modern voyager to cross from Russia to North America without the use of a boat. In 1987, swimmer Lynne Cox swam a 4. 3-kilometre course between the Diomede Islands from Alaska to the Soviet Union in 3.3 °C water during the last years of the Cold War. In June and July 1989, a British expedition, Kayaks Across the Bering Strait, completed the first sea kayak crossing of the Bering Strait from Wales, Alaska, to Cape Dezhnev, Siberia. The team of Robert Egelstaff, Trevor Potts, Greg Barton and Pete Clark landed on Little Diomede Island, rested a few days and they were escorted to Moscow from where they flew back to London at the end of July

18.
Lithic stage
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The term lithic stage refers to the cultures of the post-glacial hunters and collectors in South America. The stage derived its name from the first appearance of Lithic flaked stone tools, throughout South America, there are stone tool traditions of the lithic stage, such as the fluted fishtail that reflect localized adaptations to the diverse habitats of the continent. During the lithic stage people lived in small, mobile groups that survived on hunting, fishing. The intensive and continual use of plants and animals eventually led to genetic changes to some of the species. This lifestyle continued until around 5000 BC when people started to use domesticated plants, one of the leading figures is Alex Krieger who has documented hundreds of sites that have yielded crude, percussion-flaked tools. The most convincing evidence for a stage is based upon data recovered from sites in South America where such crude tools have been found. Examples include the Clovis culture and Folsom tradition groups, the Lithic stage was followed by the Archaic stage

19.
Megafauna
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In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are large or giant animals. The most common thresholds used are weight over 40 kilograms, over 44 kilograms and this includes many species not popularly thought of as overly large, such as white-tailed deer, red kangaroo, and humans. In practice, the most common encountered in academic and popular writing describes land mammals roughly larger than a human that are not domesticated. It is also used for the largest extant wild land animals, especially elephants, giraffes, hippopotamuses, rhinoceroses. Megafauna may be subcategorized by their position into megaherbivores, megacarnivores. The term is sometimes applied to animals of great size relative to a more common or surviving type of the animal. These characteristics, although not exclusive to such megafauna, make them vulnerable to human overexploitation, in part because of their slow population recovery rates. In an examination of body mass changes over time, the maximum increase possible in a given time interval was found to scale with the interval length raised to the 0.25 power. A strikingly faster rate of change was found for large decreases in body mass, when normalized to generation length, the maximum rate of body mass decrease was found to be over 30 times greater than the maximum rate of body mass increase for a ten-fold change. Starting from just a few kg before the event, maximum size had reached ~50 kg a few years later. However, when considered from the standpoint of rate of size increase per generation, megaherbivores eventually attained a body mass of over 10000 kg. A similar trend emerges when rates of increase of body mass per generation for different mammalian clades are compared. Among terrestrial mammals, the fastest rates of increase of body mass0.259 vs. time occurred in perissodactyls, followed by rodents and proboscids, the rate of increase for artiodactyls was about a third that of perissodactyls. The rate for carnivorans was slightly lower yet, while primates, terrestrial mammalian carnivores from several eutherian groups all reached a maximum size of about 1000 kg. The largest known metatherian carnivore, Proborhyaena gigantea, apparently reached 600 kg and it has also been suggested that maximum size for mammalian carnivores is constrained by the stress the humerus can withstand at top running speed. Analysis of the variation of body size over the last 40 Ma suggests that decreasing temperature. However, the two parameters are interrelated, making the driver of the trends in maximum size more difficult to identify. Since tetrapods returned to the sea in the Late Permian, they have dominated the top end of the body size range

20.
Iroquois
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The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. The Iroquois have absorbed many other peoples into their cultures as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, the historic Erie, Susquehannock, Wyandot, and St. Lawrence Iroquoians, all independent peoples, spoke Iroquoian languages. In 2010, more than 45,000 enrolled Six Nations people lived in Canada, the most common name for the confederacy, Iroquois, is of somewhat obscure origin. The first time it appears in writing is in the account of Samuel de Champlain of his journey to Tadoussac in 1603, other spellings occurring in the earliest sources include Erocoise, Hiroquois, Hyroquoise, Irecoies, Iriquois, Iroquaes, Irroquois, and Yroquois. In the French spoken at the time, this would have been pronounced as or. In 1883, Horatio Hale wrote that the Charlevoix etymology was dubious, Hale suggested instead that the term came from Huron, and was cognate with Mohawk ierokwa they who smoke or Cayuga iakwai a bear. Hewitt responded to Hales etymology in 1888 by expressing doubt that either of those words even exist in the respective languages, a more modern etymology is that advocated by Gordon M. Day in 1968, who elaborates upon an earlier etymology given by Charles Arnaud in 1880. Arnaud had claimed that the word came from Montagnais irnokué, meaning terrible man, Day proposes a hypothetical Montagnais phrase irno kwédač, meaning a man, an Iroquois, as the origin of this term. More recently, Peter Bakker has proposed a Basque origin for Iroquois. g and he proposes instead that the word derives from hilokoa, from the Basque roots hil to kill, ko, and a. He also argues that the /l/ was rendered as /r/ since the former is not attested in the inventory of any language in the region. Thus the word according to Bakker is translatable as the killer people, a different term, Haudenosaunee, is the designation more commonly used by the Iroquois to refer to themselves. It is also preferred by scholars of Native American history who consider the name Iroquois to be derogatory in origin. An alternate designation, Ganonsyoni, is encountered as well. More transparently, the Iroquois confederacy is also referred to simply as the Six Nations. The history of the Iroquois Confederacy goes back to its formation by the Peacemaker in 1142, each nation within the Iroquoian family had a distinct language, territory and function in the League. Iroquois influence extended into present-day Canada, westward along the Great Lakes, the League is governed by a Grand Council, an assembly of fifty chiefs or sachems, each representing one of the clans of one of the nations. The original Iroquois League or Five Nations, occupied areas of present-day New York State up to the St. Lawrence River, west of the Hudson River. The League was composed of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, in or close to 1722, the Tuscarora tribe joined the League, having migrated from the Carolinas after being displaced by Anglo-European settlement

21.
Civilization
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Historically, a civilization was a so-called advanced culture in contrast to more supposedly primitive cultures. As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure, Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over other human beings. The earlier neolithic technology and lifestyle was established first in the Middle East, and later in the Yangtze and Yellow River basins in China, similar pre-civilized neolithic revolutions also began independently from 7,000 BCE in such places as northwestern South America and Mesoamerica. These were among the six civilizations worldwide that arose independently, Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BCE, with civilizations developing from 6,500 years ago. Towards the end of the Neolithic period, various elitist Chalcolithic civilizations began to rise in various cradles from around 3300 BCE. Chalcolithic civilizations, as defined above, also developed in Pre-Columbian Americas and, despite an early start in Egypt, Axum and Kush, the English word civilization comes from the 16th-century French civilisé, from Latin civilis, related to civis and civitas. The fundamental treatise is Norbert Eliass The Civilizing Process, which traces social mores from medieval courtly society to the Early Modern period, in The Philosophy of Civilization, Albert Schweitzer outlines two opinions, one purely material and the other material and ethical. Adjectives like civility developed in the mid-16th century, the abstract noun civilization, meaning civilized condition, came in the 1760s, again from French. The word was therefore opposed to barbarism or rudeness, in the pursuit of progress characteristic of the Age of Enlightenment. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, during the French revolution, civilization was used in the singular, never in the plural and this is still the case in French. The use of civilizations as a noun was in occasional use in the 19th century. Only in this sense does it become possible to speak of a medieval civilization. Already in the 18th century, civilization was not always seen as an improvement, one historically important distinction between culture and civilization is from the writings of Rousseau, particularly his work about education, Emile. From this, a new approach was developed, especially in Germany, first by Johann Gottfried Herder and this sees cultures as natural organisms, not defined by conscious, rational, deliberative acts, but a kind of pre-rational folk spirit. Civilization, in contrast, though more rational and more successful in material progress, is unnatural and leads to vices of social life such as guile, hypocrisy, envy and avarice. In World War II, Leo Strauss, having fled Germany, argued in New York that this opinion of civilization was behind Nazism, Social scientists such as V. Gordon Childe have named a number of traits that distinguish a civilization from other kinds of society. Andrew Nikiforuk argues that civilizations relied on shackled human muscle and it took the energy of slaves to plant crops, clothe emperors, and build cities and considers slavery to be a common feature of pre-modern civilizations. All civilizations have depended on agriculture for subsistence, grain farms can result in accumulated storage and a surplus of food, particularly when people use intensive agricultural techniques such as artificial fertilization, irrigation and crop rotation

22.
Norte Chico civilization
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The Norte Chico civilization was a complex pre-Columbian era society that included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru. The civilization flourished between the fourth and second millennia BC, with the formation of the first city generally dated to around 3500 BC, at Huaricanga, in the Fortaleza area. It is from 3200 BC onward that large-scale human settlement and communal construction become clearly apparent, since the early 21st century, it has been established as the oldest known civilization in the Americas. This civilization flourished at the confluence of three rivers, the Fortaleza, the Pativilca, and the Supe and these river valleys each have large clusters of sites. Further south, there are several associated sites along the Huaura River, the alternative name, Caral-Supe, is derived from the city of Caral in the Supe Valley, a large and well-studied Norte Chico site. Complex society in Norte Chico arose a millennium after Sumer in Mesopotamia, was contemporaneous with the Egyptian pyramids, in archaeological nomenclature, Norte Chico is a pre-ceramic culture of the pre-Columbian Late Archaic, it completely lacked ceramics and apparently had almost no visual art. The most impressive achievement of the civilization was its monumental architecture, including earthwork platform mounds. Archaeological evidence suggests use of technology and, possibly, the worship of common god symbols. Sophisticated government is assumed to have required to manage the ancient Norte Chico. Questions remain over its organization, particularly the influence of food resources on politics, in the late 1990s Peruvian archaeologists, led by Ruth Shady, provided the first extensive documentation of the civilization with work at Caral. Norte Chico has pushed back the horizon for complex societies in the Peruvian region by more than one thousand years, the Chavín culture, circa 900 BC, had long been considered the first civilization of the area. It is still cited as such in general works. The discovery of Norte Chico has also shifted the focus of research away from the areas of the Andes and lowlands adjacent to the mountains to the Peruvian littoral. Norte Chico is located in a area of the coast, approximately 150 to 200 km north of Lima, roughly bounded by the Lurín Valley on the south. It comprises four coastal valleys, the Huaura, Supe, Pativilca, the three principal valleys cover only 1,800 km², and research has emphasized the density of the population centers. The Peruvian littoral appears an improbable, even aberrant candidate for the development of civilization. It is extremely arid, bounded by two rain shadows, the region is punctuated by more than 50 rivers that carry Andean snowmelt. The radiocarbon work of Jonathan Haas et al, two dates of 3700 BC are associated with communal architecture, but are likely to be anomalous

23.
Cahokia
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The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville, the park covers 2,200 acres, or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but the ancient city was much larger. In its heyday, Cahokia covered about 6 square miles and included about 120 human-made earthen mounds in a range of sizes, shapes. Today, Cahokia Mounds is considered the largest and most complex archaeological site north of the great cities in Mexico. Cahokia Mounds is a National Historic Landmark and a site for state protection. It is also one of only 23 UNESCO World Heritage Sites within the United States, although there is some evidence of occupation during the Late Archaic period in and around the site, Cahokia as it is now defined was settled around 600 CE during the Late Woodland period. Mound building at this location began with the Emergent Mississippian cultural period, the citys original name is unknown. The Mounds were later named after the Cahokia tribe, a historic Illiniwek people living in the area when the first French explorers arrived in the 17th century. As this was centuries after Cahokia was abandoned by its original inhabitants, most likely multiple indigenous ethnic groups settled in the Cahokia area. Though widely debated, some archaeologists connect Dhegihan Siouan-speaking tribes to Cahokia and they include the Osage, Kaw, Omaha, Ponca, and Quapaw. These peoples are believed to have migrated from the east of the Ohio Valley. Many Native American tribes migrated over the centuries in response to local conditions and those living in territories at the time of the European encounter were often not the descendants of peoples who had lived there centuries before and built the mounds. Historian Daniel Richter notes that the apex of the city occurred during the Medieval Warming Period, the decline of the city coincides with the little ice age, although by then the three-fold agriculture remained well-established throughout temperate North America. Cahokia became the most important center for the peoples known today as Mississippians and their settlements ranged across what is now the Midwest, Eastern, and Southeastern United States. Cahokia was located in a position near the confluence of the Mississippi, Missouri. It maintained trade links with communities as far away as the Great Lakes to the north and the Gulf Coast to the south, trading in such items as copper, Mill Creek chert. Mill Creek chert, most notably, was used in the production of hoes, Cahokias control of the manufacture and distribution of these hand tools was an important economic activity that allowed the city to thrive. Bartering, not money was used in trade, at the high point of its development, Cahokia was the largest urban center north of the great Mesoamerican cities in Mexico and Central America

24.
Zapotec civilization
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The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years, the Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave goods including finely worked gold jewelry. Monte Albán was one of the first major cities in Mesoamerica, Zapotec civilization had its beginnings in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca in the late 6th Century BC. The three valleys were divided between three different-sized societies, separated by 80 km2 “no-man’s-land” in the middle, today occupied by the city of Oaxaca, archaeological evidence from the period, such as burned temples and sacrificed captives, suggest that the three societies competed against each other. At the end of the Rosario phase the valleys largest settlement San José Mogote, during the same period a new large settlement emerged in the “no-man’s-land”. That settlement, which was constructed on top of a mountain overlooking the three Central valleys was Monte Albán, similarities between the pottery of San José Mogote and at early Monte Albán indicate that the people who populated Monte Albán were the same ones who had left San José Mogote. The Zapotec state formed at Monte Albán began an expansion during the late Monte Alban 1 phase, Zapotec rulers seized control over the provinces outside the valley of Oaxaca. They were able to do this during Monte Alban 1c to Monte Alban 2 because none of the provinces could compete with the valley of Oaxaca both politically and militarily. By 200 AD the Zapotecs had extended their influence, from Quiotepec in the North to Ocelotepec and Chiltepec in the South, Monte Albán had become the largest city in what are today the southern Mexican highlands, and retained this status until approximately 700 AD. The expansion of the Zapotec empire peaked during the Monte Alban II phase, Zapotecs conquered or colonized settlements far beyond The Valley of Oaxaca. Most notably, this expansion is visible in the change of ceramics found in regions outside the valley. These regions own unique styles were replaced with Zapotec style pottery. What today is referred to as building J, is shaped like an arrowhead, the glyphs have been interpreted by archaeologists to represent the provinces that were controlled by the Zapotecs of Monte Albán. In addition, each group also depicts a head with an elaborate head dress carved into the slabs. These are assumed to illustrate the rulers of the provinces who were taken over, small polities, seeing that resistance would be futile, may accept a face-saving offer. Larger polities unwilling to lose their autonomy may have to be subdued militarily, during the expansion of Monte Alban 2 state, we think we see both colonization and conquest. The name Zapotec is an exonym coming from Nahuatl tzapotēcah, which inhabitants of the place of sapote. The Zapotec referred to themselves by some variant of the term Beenaa, the Zapotec languages belong to a language family called Oto-manguean, an ancient family of Mesoamerican languages

25.
Toltec
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The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology. The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec Empire, giving lists of rulers, among modern scholars it is a matter of debate whether the Aztec narratives of Toltec history should be given credence as descriptions of actual historical events. Others maintain that continued analysis of the narratives as sources of history is futile. No consensus has yet emerged about the degree or direction of influence between these two sites, another source of controversy is the fact that New Age authors such as Carlos Castaneda and Don Miguel Ruiz, who say that they represent Toltec teachings. For this tradition of knowledge see Toltec, traits associated with this horizon are, The Mixteca-Puebla style of iconography, Tohil plumbate ceramic ware and Silho or X-Fine Orange Ware ceramics. The presence of traits associated with Tula in Chichén Itzá is also taken as evidence for a Toltec horizon. The existence of any meaning of the Mixteca-Puebla art style has also been questioned, while Tula does have the urban complexity expected of an imperial capital, its influence and dominance was not very far reaching. Evidence for Tulas participation in trade networks has been uncovered, for example. The debate about the nature of the Toltec culture goes back to the late 19th century and this led him to posit the theory that Chichén Itzá had been violently taken over by a Toltec military force under the leadership of Kukulcan. The historicist school of thought persisted well in to the 20th century, represented in the works of such as David Carrasco, Miguel León Portilla, Nigel Davies. Nicholson, which all held the Toltecs to have been an ethnic group. This school of thought connected the Toltecs to the site of Tula. This tradition assumes that much of central Mexico was dominated by a Toltec Empire between the 10th and 12th century CE, the Aztecs referred to several Mexican city states as Tollan, Place of Reeds, such as Tollan Cholollan. Archaeologist Laurette Sejourné, followed by the historian Enrique Florescano, have argued that the original Tollan was probably Teotihuacán, Florescano adds that the Mayan sources refer to Chichén Itzá when talking about the mythical place Zuyua. Many historicists such as H. B, for example, they seek to discern between the deity Quetzalcoatl and a Toltec ruler often referred to as Topiltzin Ce Acatl Quetzalcoatl. Scholars such as Michel Graulich and Susan D. Gillespie maintained that the difficulties in salvaging historic data from the Aztec accounts of Toltec history are too great to overcome, the first is described as a valiant triumphant warrior, but the last as a feeble and self-doubting old man. This caused Graulich to consider that the only historical data in the Aztec chronicles are the names of some rulers. Furthermore, among the Nahuan peoples the word Tolteca was synonymous with artist, artisan or wise man, and toltecayotl

26.
Olmec
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The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco and modern southwestern pacific lowlands of Guatemala. They lived in the lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring Mokaya and/or Mixe–Zoque, the population of the Olmecs flourished during Mesoamericas formative period, dating roughly from as early as 1500 BCE to about 400 BCE. They were the first Mesoamerican civilization, and laid many of the foundations for the civilizations that followed, among other firsts, the Olmec appeared to practice ritual bloodletting and played the Mesoamerican ballgame, hallmarks of nearly all subsequent Mesoamerican societies. The aspect of the Olmecs most familiar now is their artwork, the Olmec civilization was first defined through artifacts which collectors purchased on the pre-Columbian art market in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Olmec artworks are considered among ancient Americas most striking, the name Olmec comes from the Nahuatl word for the Olmecs, Ōlmēcatl or Ōlmēcah. This word is composed of the two words ōlli, meaning rubber, and mēcatl, meaning people, so the word means rubber people, the Olmec heartland is the area in the Gulf lowlands where it expanded after early development in Soconusco. This area is characterized by swampy lowlands punctuated by low hills, ridges, the Tuxtlas Mountains rise sharply in the north, along the Gulf of Mexicos Bay of Campeche. Here the Olmec constructed permanent city-temple complexes at San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, La Venta, Tres Zapotes, in this region, the first Mesoamerican civilization emerged and reigned from c. The beginnings of Olmec civilization have traditionally been placed between 1400 and 1200 BCE, past finds of Olmec remains ritually deposited at El Manati shrine moved this back to at least 1600–1500 BCE. It seems that the Olmec had their roots in early farming cultures of Tabasco and these shared the same basic food crops and technologies of the later Olmec civilization. What is today called Olmec first appeared fully within the city of San Lorenzo Tenochtitlán, the rise of civilization was assisted by the local ecology of well-watered alluvial soil, as well as by the transportation network provided by the Coatzacoalcos River basin. This environment may be compared to that of other ancient centers of civilization, the Nile, Indus, and Yellow River valleys and this highly productive environment encouraged a densely concentrated population, which in turn triggered the rise of an elite class. The elite class created the demand for the production of the symbolic, the state of Guerrero, and in particular its early Mezcala culture, seem to have played an important role in the early history of Olmec culture. Olmec-style artifacts tend to appear earlier in some parts of Guerrero than in the Veracruz-Tabasco area, in particular, the relevant objects from the Amuco-Abelino site in Guerrero reveal dates as early as 1530 BC. The city of Teopantecuanitlan in Guerrero is also relevant in this regard, the first Olmec center, San Lorenzo, was all but abandoned around 900 BCE at about the same time that La Venta rose to prominence. A wholesale destruction of many San Lorenzo monuments also occurred circa 950 BCE, which may indicate an internal uprising or, less likely, an invasion. The latest thinking, however, is that changes may have been responsible for this shift in Olmec centers

27.
Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architecture, including large temples with elaborate stucco façades. Hieroglyphic writing was being used in the Maya region by the 3rd century BC, in the Late Preclassic a number of large cities developed in the Petén Basin, and Kaminaljuyu rose to prominence in the Guatemalan Highlands. Beginning around 250 AD, the Classic period is defined as when the Maya were raising sculpted monuments with Long Count dates. This period saw the Maya civilization develop a number of city-states linked by a complex trade network. In the Maya Lowlands two great rivals, Tikal and Calakmul, became powerful, the Classic period also saw the intrusive intervention of the central Mexican city of Teotihuacan in Maya dynastic politics. In the 9th century, there was a political collapse in the central Maya region, resulting in internecine warfare, the abandonment of cities. The Postclassic period saw the rise of Chichen Itza in the north, in the 16th century, the Spanish Empire colonized the Mesoamerican region, and a lengthy series of campaigns saw the fall of Nojpetén, the last Maya city in 1697. Classic period rule was centred on the concept of the divine king, kingship was patrilineal, and power would normally pass to the eldest son. A prospective king was expected to be a successful war leader. Maya politics was dominated by a system of patronage, although the exact political make-up of a kingdom varied from city-state to city-state. By the Late Classic, the aristocracy had greatly increased, resulting in the reduction in the exclusive power of the divine king. Maya cities tended to expand haphazardly, and the city centre would be occupied by ceremonial and administrative complexes, different parts of a city would often be linked by causeways. The principal architecture of the city consisted of palaces, pyramid-temples, ceremonial ballcourts, the Maya elite were literate, and developed a complex system of hieroglyphic writing that was the most advanced in the pre-Columbian Americas. The Maya recorded their history and ritual knowledge in screenfold books, there are also a great many examples of Maya text found on stelae and ceramics. The Maya developed a complex series of interlocking ritual calendars. As a part of their religion, the Maya practised human sacrifice, the Maya civilization developed within the Mesoamerican cultural area, which covers a region that spreads from northern Mexico southwards into Central America. Mesoamerica was one of six cradles of civilization worldwide, the Mesoamerican area gave rise to a series of cultural developments that included complex societies, agriculture, cities, monumental architecture, writing, and calendrical systems

28.
Aztec
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The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclusively to the Mexica people of Tenochtitlan, situated on an island in Lake Texcoco, who referred to themselves as Mēxihcah Tenochcah or Cōlhuah Mexihcah. From the 13th century, the Valley of Mexico was the heart of Aztec civilization, here the capital of the Aztec Triple Alliance, the Triple Alliance formed a tributary empire expanding its political hegemony far beyond the Valley of Mexico, conquering other city states throughout Mesoamerica. At its pinnacle, Aztec culture had rich and complex mythological and religious traditions, as well as achieving remarkable architectural and artistic accomplishments. Subsequently, the Spanish founded the new settlement of Mexico City on the site of the ruined Aztec capital, the term extends to further ethnic groups associated with the Aztec empire such as the Acolhua and Tepanec and others that were incorporated into the empire. In older usage the term was used about modern Nahuatl speaking ethnic groups. In recent usage these ethnic groups are referred to as the Nahua peoples. Linguistically the term Aztecan is still used about the branch of the Uto-Aztecan languages that includes the Nahuatl language and its closest relatives Pochutec, to the Aztecs themselves the word aztec was not an endonym for any particular ethnic group. Rather it was a term used to refer to several ethnic groups, not all of them Nahuatl speaking. In the Nahuatl language aztecatl means person from Aztlan and this usage has been the subject of debate in more recent years, but the term Aztec is still more common. For the same reason the notion of Aztec civilization is best understood as a horizon of a general Mesoamerican civilization. Particular to the Aztecs of Tenochtitlan was the Mexica patron God Huitzilopochtli, twin pyramids, the Aztec Empire was a tribute empire based in Tenochtitlan that extended its power throughout Mesoamerica in the late postclassic period. Soon Texcoco and Tlacopan became junior partners in the alliance, which was de facto led by the Mexica of Tenochtitlan, the empire extended its power by a combination of trade and military conquest. The political clout of the empire reached far south into Mesoamerica conquering cities as far south as Chiapas and Guatemala, the Nahua peoples began to migrate into Mesoamerica from northern Mexico in the 6th century. They populated central Mexico, dislocating speakers of Oto-Manguean languages as they spread their influence south. As the former nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples mixed with the civilizations of Mesoamerica, adopting religious and cultural practices. During the Postclassic period they rose to power at such sites as Tula, in the 12th century the Nahua power center was in Azcapotzalco, from where the Tepanecs dominated the valley of Mexico

29.
Chimor
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Chimor was the political grouping of the Chimú culture that ruled the northern coast of Peru beginning around 850 and ending around 1470. Chimor was the largest kingdom in the Late Intermediate period, encompassing 1,000 kilometres of coastline, the greatest surviving ruin of this civilization is the city of Chan Chan located 4 kilometres northwest of the modern Trujillo, Peru. The Chimú grew out of the remnants of the Moche culture, the first valleys seem to have joined forces willingly, but the Sican culture was acquired through conquest. They also were influenced by the pre-Incan Cajamarca and Wari cultures. According to legend, its capital of Chan Chan was founded by Taycanamo, chimor was the last kingdom that had any chance of stopping the Inca Empire. But the Inca conquest began in the 1470s by Topa Inca Yupanqui, defeating the emperor and descendant of Tacaynamo, Minchancaman, Chimú ceramics are usually stained black. It is also known for its exquisite and intricate metalworking, one of the most advanced of the pre-Columbian era

30.
Mixtec
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The Mixtec region and the Mixtec peoples are traditionally divided into three groups, two based on their original economic caste and one based on the region they settled. High Mixtecs or mixteco alto were of the class and generally richer. In recent times, a reversal or equalizing has been seen. The third group is Coastal Mixtecs mixteco de la costa whose language is related to that of the Low Mixtecs, they currently inhabit the Pacific slope of Oaxaca. The Mixtec languages form a branch of the Otomanguean language family. In pre-Columbian times, a number of Mixtecan city states competed with each other, like the rest of the indigenous peoples of Mexico, the Mixtec were conquered by the Spanish invaders and their indigenous allies in the 16th century. Pre-Columbia Mixtecs numbered around 1.5 million, today there are approximately 800,000 Mixtec people in Mexico, and there are also large populations in the United States. The term Mixtec comes from the Nahuatl word mixtecah, cloud people, there are many names that the Mixtecs have for naming themselves, ñuù savi, nayívi savi, ñuù davi, nayivi davi. etc. This all denominations can be translated as people of the rain, the historic homeland of Mixtec people is La Mixteca, called in Mixtec language Ñuu Savi, Ñuu Djau, Ñuu Davi, etc. depending on the local variant. They call their language saan davi, daan davi or tuun savi, in pre-Columbian times, the Mixtec were one of the major civilizations of Mesoamerica. Important ancient centres of the Mixtec include the ancient capital of Tilantongo, as well as the sites of Achiutla, Cuilapan, Huajuapan, Mitla, Tlaxiaco, Tututepec, Juxtlahuaca, the Mixtec also made major constructions at the ancient city of Monte Albán. The work of Mixtec artisans who produced work in stone, wood, according to West, the Mixtec of Oaxaca. were the foremost goldsmiths of Mesoamerica, which included the lost-wax casting of gold and its alloys. At the height of the Aztec Empire, many Mixtecs paid tribute to the Aztecs and they put up resistance to Spanish rule until they were subdued by the Spanish and their central Mexican allies led by Pedro de Alvarado. Mixtecs have migrated to parts of both Mexico and the United States. In recent years a large exodus of indigenous peoples from Oaxaca, such as the Zapotec, as of 2011, an estimated 150,000 Mixteco people were living in California, and 25,000 to 30,000 in New York City. Large Mixtec communities exist in the cities of Tijuana, Baja California, San Diego, California and Tucson. Mixtec communities are generally described as trans-national or trans-border because of their ability to maintain, there is considerable documentation in the Mixtec native language for the colonial era, which has been studied as part of the New Philology. There is considerable Mixtec documentation for land issues, but sparse for market activity, long distance trade existed in the prehispanic era and continued in indigenous hands in the early colonial

31.
Moche (culture)
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The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 800 during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state. Rather, they were likely a group of autonomous polities that shared a common culture, as seen in the rich iconography. Moche society was based, with a significant level of investment in the construction of a network of irrigation canals for the diversion of river water to supply their crops. Their culture was sophisticated, and their artifacts express their lives, with detailed scenes of hunting, fishing, fighting, sacrifice, sexual encounters, the Moche are particularly noted for their elaborately painted ceramics, gold work, monumental constructions and irrigation systems. The Salinar culture reigned on the north coast of Peru in 200 BC-200 AD, according to some scholars this was a short transition period between the Cupisnique and the Moche cultures. Theres considerable parallelism between Moche and Cupisnique iconography and ceramic designs, including the iconography of the Spider god, the nearby Huaca de la Luna is better preserved. Its interior walls contains many colorful murals with complex iconography, the site has been under professional archaeological excavation since the early 1990s. Other major Moche sites include Sipan, Loma Negra, Dos Cabezas, Pacatnamu, the El Brujo complex, Mocollope, Cerro Mayal, Galindo, Huanchaco and their adobe huacas have been mostly destroyed by looters and natural forces over the last 1300 years. The surviving ones show that the coloring of their murals was very vibrant, two distinct regions of the Moche civilization have been identified, Southern and Northern Moche, with each area probably corresponding to a different political entity. The Southern Moche region, believed to be the heartland of the culture, originally comprised the Chicama and Moche valleys, the Huaca del Sol-Huaca de la Luna site was probably the capital of this region. It appears that there was a lot of independent development among these various Moche centres and they all likely had ruling dynasties of their own, related to each other. Centralized control of the whole Moche area may have taken place from time to time, pampa Grande, in the Lambayeque Valley, on the shore of the Chancay River, became one of the largest Moche sites anywhere, and occupied the area of more than 400 ha. It was prominent in the Moche V period, and features an abundance of Moche V ceramics, the site was laid out and built in a short period of time, and has an enormous ceremonial complex. It includes Huaca Fortaleza, which is the tallest ceremonial platform in Peru, San Jose de Moro is another northern site in the Jequetepeque valley. It was prominent in the Middle and Late Moche Periods, numerous Moche tombs have been excavated here, including several burials containing high status female individuals. These women were depicted in Moche iconography as the Priestess, Moche pottery is some of the most varied in the world. The use of technology is evident

32.
Mississippian culture
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The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American civilization archeologists date from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was composed of a series of settlements and satellite villages linked together by a loose trading network. The Mississippian way of life began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley, cultures in the tributary Tennessee River Valley may have also begun to develop Mississippian characteristics at this point. Almost all dated Mississippian sites predate 1539–1540, with exceptions being Natchez communities that maintained Mississippian cultural practices into the 18th century. A number of traits are recognized as being characteristic of the Mississippians. Although not all Mississippian peoples practiced all of the following activities, the construction of large, truncated earthwork pyramid mounds, or platform mounds. Such mounds were usually square, rectangular, or occasionally circular, structures were usually constructed atop such mounds. The adoption and use of shells as tempering agents in their shell tempered pottery. Widespread trade networks extending as far west as the Rockies, north to the Great Lakes, south to the Gulf of Mexico, the development of the chiefdom or complex chiefdom level of social complexity. The development of institutionalized social inequality, a centralization of control of combined political and religious power in the hands of few or one. The beginnings of a settlement hierarchy, in one major center has clear influence or control over a number of lesser communities. The adoption of the paraphernalia of the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex, also called the Southern Cult and this is the belief system of the Mississippians as we know it. SECC items are found in Mississippian-culture sites from Wisconsin to the Gulf Coast, the SECC was frequently tied in to ritual game-playing, as with chunkey. The Mississippians had no writing system or stone architecture, the Mississippi stage is usually divided into three or more chronological periods. Each period is an historical distinction varying regionally. At a particular site, each period may be considered to begin earlier or later, the Mississippi period should not be confused with the Mississippian culture. The Mississippi period is the stage, while Mississippian culture refers to the cultural similarities that characterize this society. The Early Mississippi period had just transitioned from the Late Woodland period way of life, different groups abandoned tribal lifeways for increasing complexity, sedentism, centralization, and agriculture

33.
Puebloan
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The Pueblo peoples speak languages from several different groups and are also divided culturally by their kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of corn. In addition to differing kinship systems, the peoples have differing marriage practices and those who have a matrilineal system, in which children are considered born into the mothers clan and her line is used for inheritance and descent, are the Hopi, Keres, Towa and Zuni. The non-Towa Tanoan have a system, with clan membership, inheritance. All the Pueblo peoples have traditional economies based on agriculture and trade, at the time of Spanish encounter beginning in the 16th century, these peoples were living in complex, multi-story villages often built around a central courtyard. The Spanish called these pueblos, meaning towns, and applied the name to all the living in such complexes. In the 21st century there are 21 surviving pueblos in the Southwest of the United States, Taos, Acoma, Zuni, and Hopi are the best-known. The main pueblos are located primarily in the states of New Mexico. Anthropologists have studied these peoples extensively and published various classifications of their subdivisions, in 1950, Fred Russell Eggan contrasted the peoples of the Eastern and Western Pueblos, based largely on their subsistence farming techniques. The Western or Desert Pueblos of the Zuñi and Hopi specialize in dry farming, in 1954, Paul Kirchhoff published a division of the Pueblo peoples into two groups based on culture, one includes the Hopi, Zuni, Keres and Jemez. They each have matrilineal kinship systems, children are considered born into their mothers clan and must marry a spouse outside it and they maintain multiple kivas for sacred ceremonies. Their creation myth tells that humans emerged from the underground and they emphasize four or six cardinal directions as part of their sacred cosmology, beginning in the north. Four and seven are considered significant in their rituals and symbolism. In contrast, the Tanoan-speaking Pueblos have a kinship system. They practice endogamy, or marriage within the clan and they have two kivas or two groups of kivas in their pueblos. Their belief system is based in dualism, the creation story recounts the emergence of the people from underwater. They use five directions, beginning in the west and their ritual numbers are based on multiples of three. The Pueblo peoples speak languages from different language families, demonstrating their diverse ethnic origins. The Hopi language is Uto-Aztecan, Zuni is an isolate, and Keresan is a dialect continuum that includes Acoma, Laguna, Santa Ana, Zia, Cochiti, Santo Domingo

34.
Totonac
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The Totonac /ˈtoʊtoʊˌnɑːk/ people resided in the eastern coastal and mountainous regions of Mexico at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519. Today they reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and they are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán. Until the mid-19th century they were the main producers of vanilla. The term totonac refers to the living in Totonacapan, some authors had translated the term totonac as a Nahuatl word meaning People of Hot Land. The translation for this according to the Totonac Language is tutunacu meaning Three Hearts signifying their three cities or cultural centers, Cempoala, Tajin and Teayo. In the 15th century, the Aztecs labeled the region of the Totonac Totonacapan, Totonacapan was largely hot and humid. Along with the agricultural crops of maize, manioc, squash, beans, pumpkin and chili peppers. Even during the disastrous central Mexican famine of 1450-1454, the region remained an agricultural center. At that time, many Aztecs were forced to sell themselves or their members as slaves to the Totonac in exchange for subsistence maize. There is an absence of comals, metates and manos meaning the Totonacs did not eat tortillas, however. The Totonacs ate fruit most notably zapotes, guavas, papayas, plantains, men hunted and fished shark, turtle, deer, armadillo, opossums, and frogs. Peasants as well as nobles ate corn porridge in the morning, lunch was the main meal of the day and consisted of manioc, bean stew or even a rich meat sauce for the nobles. Fish and seafood as well as game was eaten by both nobles and farmers, Totonac women were expert weavers and embroiderers, they dressed grandly and braided their hair with feathers. The Franciscan friar Bernardino de Sahagún stated that, in all aspects of their appearance, the women were quite elegant, women wore skirts, noble women wore shell and jade necklaces and earrings and often tattooed their faces with red ink. Married women wore their hair in the Nahuatl fashion while peasant women wore their hair long, likewise, the noble men dressed well, adorning themselves with multicolored cloaks, loin cloths, necklaces, arm bands, lip plugs and devices made of the prized quetzal feathers. Hair was kept long with a tuft of hair on the top tied up with a ribbon. Houses were generally thatched and had an overhang, the region of Totonacapan was subject to Aztec military incursions from the mid-15th century until the Spanish arrival. Despite the e tablishment of Aztec fortifications throughout the region, rebellion was endemic, major Totonac centers were Papantla, with an estimated population of 60,000 in 1519, Xalapa, and Cempoala

35.
Teotihuacan
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Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, the city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. Teotihuacan began as a new center in the Mexican Highlands around the first century AD. This city came to be the largest and most populated center in the pre-Columbian Americas, Teotihuacan was even home to multi-floor apartment compounds built to accommodate this large population. The term Teotihuacan is also used for the civilization and cultural complex associated with the site. The later Aztecs saw these magnificent ruins and claimed a common ancestry with the Teotihuacanos, the ethnicity of the inhabitants of Teotihuacan is also a subject of debate. Possible candidates are the Nahua, Otomi, or Totonac ethnic groups, scholars have also suggested that Teotihuacan was a multi-ethnic state. The city and the site are located in what is now the San Juan Teotihuacán municipality in the State of México. The site covers a surface area of 83 square kilometres and was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. It is the most visited site in Mexico. The name Teōtīhuacān was given by the Nahuatl-speaking Aztecs centuries after the fall of the city around 550 A. D, the term has been glossed as birthplace of the gods, or place where gods were born, reflecting Nahua creation myths that were said to occur in Teotihuacan. Nahuatl scholar Thelma D. Sullivan interprets the name as place of those who have the road of the gods and this is because the Aztecs believed that the gods created the universe at that site. The name is pronounced in Nahuatl, with the accent on the syllable wa, by normal Nahuatl orthographic conventions, a written accent would not appear in that position. Both this pronunciation and Spanish pronunciation, are used, and both appear in this article. The original name of the city is unknown, but it appears in texts from the Maya region as puh. This naming convention led to confusion in the early 20th century. It now seems clear that Tollan may be understood as a generic Nahua term applied to any large settlement, the early history of Teotihuacan is quite mysterious, and the origin of its founders is uncertain. Around 300 BC, people of the central and southeastern area of Mesoamerica began to gather into larger settlements, Teotihuacan was the largest urban center of Mesoamerica before the Aztecs, almost 1000 years prior to their epoch

36.
Huastec people
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The ancient Huastec civilization is one of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. The Pre-Columbian Huastecs constructed temples on step-pyramids, carved independently standing sculptures and they were admired for their abilities as musicians by other Mesoamerican peoples. The Huastecs were conquered by the Spanish between 1519 and the 1530s, after the Spanish Conquest, many Huastecs were sold as slaves in the Caribbean by the Spanish. The first grammatical and lexical description of the Huastec language accessible to Europeans was by Fray Andrés de Olmos, studies of language change, especially glottochronology, have given linguists the tools to estimate the point in time when many pairs of languages diverged from their common ancestral tongue. The procedure depends on the assumption that change, in the absence of widespread literacy. Of all the languages descended from Proto-Mayan, the language was the first to split from Mayan proper. The second split, in the main branch, was between proto-Yucatecan, now spoken across the Yucatán Peninsula, and the ancestors of all other Maya languages. The only other language, besides Huastec, which arose from proto-Huastecan was Chicomuceltec, a language spoken in Chiapas near Comitán. Linguists have approximated that the precursor to the language of the Huastecs diverged from the Proto-Mayan language between 2200 and 1200 BCE. Linguist Morris Swadesh posited the later date as the latest possible time for this split to have occurred, mcQuown suggests 1500 BCE, Manrique Castaneda 1800 BCE, and Dahlin 2100 BCE as the most likely dates for the split. Robertsons work on verb affixes in the Mayan languages implies that the Huastecs were in contact with the branch of Mayan. In Proto-Mayan, absolutives could be marked either by a prefix or a suffix and this feature was retained in Qanjobal, but lost in other branches. Huastec appears to have influenced by proto-Tzeltal, resulting in such innovations as the preposition ta. Huastec people lived north of Totonacs in the corner of Mesoamerica. Huastec people spoke Mayan, which was a trade language to be spoken at the time. Their art was influenced by the area resulting in shell artifacts. Amongst their art they also made pots, gaming stones, platform pipes and these items were often made from shells and made into shape of human heads, engraved shell gorgets, fan headdresses, and of hunch backed humans. At least three languages are spoken in parts of the region today, Nahuatl, spoken especially in Veracruz

37.
Izapa
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Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas, it was occupied during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, near the base of the Tacaná volcano, the settlement at Izapa extended over 1.4 miles, making it the largest site in Chiapas. Izapa remained occupied through the Late Classic period, the period of Izapa’s height is still unknown due to little material for carbon dating, so the issue is still widely debated. Izapa is located on wet and hilly land made of volcanic soil, the weather is very hot and very wet. The area around Izapa was a major producing area known as the Soconusco region. Izapa was a site that included extensive monuments and architecture. The site had eight groups of mounds with between 80 and 130 total mounds, of which about half have been restored. Group F is at the end of the site, Groups A, B, C, D, G. From north to south, the site is about 1.5 km long. The core area of Izapa is formed by Groups A to E, G and H, group F contains a ballcourt amongst other structures, and corresponds to the late occupational phase of the site. Izapa’s architecture makes up roughly 250,000 cubic meters when combined, the site included pyramids, sculptured plazas and squares, and possibly two ball courts. There are two open areas that resemble ball courts found at other Mesoamerican sites, but it is unclear if these two courts were used for the ballgame. Mound 30A was where a stepped pyramid was built and this pyramid was around ten meters high and probably used for religious and ceremonial purposes. Like many Mesoamerican sites, Izapa is laid out just east of true north and it is aligned with the volcano Tacaná and also seems to be situated to the December solstice horizon. Michael Coe describes Izapa as being a link between the Olmec and the early Maya. Other archaeologists argue that there is not yet known to support Coe. Virginia Smith argues that Izapan art is too unique and different in style to be the result of Olmec influence or the precursor to Maya art, Smith says that Izapan art is very site specific and did not spread far from the site. Izapan art most likely did indirectly influence Maya art, though it would just be one of the influences on the Maya

38.
Mazatec people
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The meaning of Mazatec translates to people of the deer, derived from the Nahuatl word Mazatl meaning deer. The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family which, in turn, is part of the Otomanguean language family, the Mazatecs religion represents a syncretism of traditional beliefs with Christian beliefs brought by the Spanish conquistadores. Mazatec tradition includes the cultivation of entheogens for spiritual and ritualistic use, plants and fungi used for this purpose include psilocybin mushrooms, psychoactive morning glory seeds, and perhaps most significant to the Mazatecs, Salvia divinorum. This latter plant is known to Mazatec shamans as ska María Pastora, María Sabina Julieta Casimiro Indigenous peoples in Mexico Mixtec Article from the Catholic Encyclopedia

39.
Muisca people
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The Muisca are the Chibcha-speaking people that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombias Eastern Range, in particular the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. As one out of four advanced civilizations of the Americas, they were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537 and it bordered the territories of the Panche and Pijao tribes. At the time of the conquest, the area had a large population, estimates vary from half a million to up to three million inhabitants. The Muisca spoke muysccubun, a dialect of Chibcha, also called Muysca and Mosca, the economy was based on agriculture, salt mining, metalworking and manufacturing. Today the Muisca population has almost died out, although in the municipalities and districts Cota, Chía, Tenjo, Suba, Engativá, Tocancipá, Gachancipá, a census by the Ministry of Interior Affairs in 2005 provided a total of 14,051 Muisca persons in Colombia. Excavations in the Altiplano Cundiboyacense show evidence of activity since the Archaic stage at the beginning of the Holocene era. Colombia has one of the most ancient archaeological sites of the Americas, El Abra, human skeletons were found that date to 5000 BCE. Analysis demonstrated that the people were members of the El Abra Culture, scholars agree that the group identified as Muisca migrated to the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Formative stage, as shown by evidence found at Aguazuque and Soacha. Like the other cultures of America, the Muiscas were in a transition between being hunter-gatherers and becoming sedentary farmers. Around 1500 BCE, groups of agrarians with ceramic traditions came to the region from the lowlands and they had permanent housing and stationary camps, and worked the salty water to extract salt. In Zipacón there is evidence of agriculture and ceramics, the most ancient settlement of the highlands dates to 1270 BCE. Between 500 BCE and 800 BCE, a wave of migrants came to the highlands. Their presence is identified by multicolor ceramics, housing, and farms and these groups were still in residence upon the arrival of the Spanish conquerors. They left abundant traces of their occupation that have been studied since the 16th century and it is possible that the Muisca integrated with more ancient inhabitants, but the Muisca were the ones who molded the cultural profile and the social and political organization. Their language, a dialect of Chibcha, was similar to those peoples of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Zipa Saguamanchica was in a constant war against aggressive tribes such as the Sutagao, and especially the Panche, the Caribs were also a permanent threat as rivals of the zaque of Hunza, especially for the possession of the salt mines of Zipaquirá, Nemocón and Tausa. The Muisca people were organized in a confederation that was a union of states that each retained sovereignty. The confederation was not a kingdom, as there was no monarch, nor was it an empire

40.
Inca
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The Inca Empire, also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru, the Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru sometime in the early 13th century. Its last stronghold was conquered by the Spanish in 1572, from 1438 to 1533, the Incas incorporated a large portion of western South America, centered on the Andean Mountains, using conquest and peaceful assimilation, among other methods. The Incas considered their king, the Sapa Inca, to be the son of the sun, the Inca Empire was unique in that it lacked many features associated with civilization in the Old world. In the words of one scholar, The Incas lacked the use of wheeled vehicles, the Incan economy has been described as feudal, slave, socialist. The economy functioned largely without money and without markets, instead, exchange of goods and services was based on reciprocity between individuals and among individuals, groups, and Inca rulers. Taxes consisted of an obligation of a person to the Empire. The Inca rulers reciprocated by granting access to land and goods and providing food, the Inca referred to their empire as Tawantinsuyu, the four suyu. The four suyu were, Chinchaysuyu, Antisuyu, Qullasuyu and Kuntisuyu, the name Tawantinsuyu was, therefore, a descriptive term indicating a union of provinces. The Spanish transliterated the name as Tahuatinsuyo or Tahuatinsuyu, the term Inka means ruler or lord in Quechua and was used to refer to the ruling class or the ruling family. The Incas were a small percentage of the total population of the empire, probably numbering only 15,000 to 40,000. The Spanish adopted the term as a term referring to all subjects of the empire rather than simply the ruling class. As such the name Imperio inca referred to the nation that they encountered, the Inca people were a pastoral tribe in the Cusco area around the 12th century. Incan oral history tells a story of three caves. The center cave at Tampu Tuqu was named Qhapaq Tuqu, the other caves were Maras Tuqu and Sutiq Tuqu. Four brothers and four sisters stepped out of the middle cave and they were, Ayar Manco, Ayar Cachi, Ayar Awqa and Ayar Uchu, and Mama Ocllo, Mama Raua, Mama Huaco and Mama Qura. Out of the side caves came the people who were to be the ancestors of all the Inca clans, Ayar Manco carried a magic staff made of the finest gold. Where this staff landed, the people would live and they traveled for a long time

41.
Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ceded its last colonies in the Caribbean and its last African colonies were granted independence or abandoned during Decolonisation of Africa finishing in 1976. The unity did not mean uniformity, nevertheless, some historians assert that Portugal was part of the Spanish monarchy at the time, while others draw a clear distinction between the Portuguese and Spanish empires. During the 15th century, Castile and Portugal became territorial and commercial rivals in the western Atlantic. The conquest was completed with the campaigns of the armies of the Crown of Castile between 1478 and 1496, when the islands of Gran Canaria, La Palma, and Tenerife were subjugated. The Portuguese tried in vain to keep secret their discovery of the Gold Coast in the Gulf of Guinea, chronicler Pulgar wrote that the fame of the treasures of Guinea spread around the ports of Andalusia in such way that everybody tried to go there. Worthless trinkets, Moorish textiles, and above all, shells from the Canary and Cape Verde islands were exchanged for gold, slaves, ivory and Guinea pepper. The Crown officially organized this trade with Guinea, every caravel had to get a government license, the treaty delimited the spheres of influence of the two countries, establishing the principle of the Mare clausum. It was confirmed in 1481 by the Pope Sixtus IV, in the papal bull Æterni regis, thus, the limitations imposed by the Alcáçovas treaty were overcome and a new and more balanced worlds division would be reached at Tordesillas between both emerging maritime powers. Seven months before the treaty of Alcaçovas, King John II of Aragon died, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last Moorish king out of Granada in 1492 after a ten-year war. The Catholic Monarchs then negotiated with Christopher Columbus, a Genoese sailor attempting to reach Cipangu by sailing west, Castile was already engaged in a race of exploration with Portugal to reach the Far East by sea when Columbus made his bold proposal to Isabella. Columbus discoveries inaugurated the Spanish colonization of the Americas and these actions gave Spain exclusive rights to establish colonies in all of the New World from north to south, as well as the easternmost parts of Asia. The treaty of Tordesillas was confirmed by Pope Julius II in the bull Ea quae pro bono pacis on 24 January 1506, Spains expansion and colonization was driven by economic influences, a yearning to improve national prestige, and a desire to spread Catholicism into the New World. The Catholic Monarchs had developed a strategy of marriages for their children in order to isolate their long-time enemy, the Spanish princes married the heirs of Portugal, England and the House of Habsburg. Following the same strategy, the Catholic Monarchs decided to support the Catalan-Aragonese house of Naples against Charles VIII of France in the Italian Wars beginning in 1494. As King of Aragon, Ferdinand had been involved in the struggle against France and Venice for control of Italy, these conflicts became the center of Ferdinands foreign policy as king. Only a year later, Ferdinand became part of the Holy League against France and this war was less of a success than the war against Venice, and in 1516, France agreed to a truce that left Milan in its control and recognized Spanish control of Upper Navarre

42.
Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas, was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in world history and the first colonial empire. It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002, the first era of the Portuguese empire originated at the beginning of the Age of Discovery. Initiated by the Kingdom of Portugal, it would eventually expand across the globe, in 1488, Bartolomeu Dias rounded the Cape of Good Hope, and in 1498, Vasco da Gama reached India. In 1500, either by an accidental landfall or by the secret design. Over the following decades, Portuguese sailors continued to explore the coasts and islands of East Asia, establishing forts, by 1571, a string of naval outposts connected Lisbon to Nagasaki along the coasts of Africa, the Middle East, India and South Asia. This commercial network and the trade had a substantial positive impact on Portuguese economic growth. Though the realms continued to be administered separately, the Council of Portugal ruled the country and its empire from Madrid. As the King of Spain was also King of Portugal, Portuguese colonies became the subject of attacks by three rival European powers hostile to Spain, the Dutch Republic, England, and France. With its smaller population, Portugal was unable to defend its overstretched network of trading posts. Eventually, Brazil became the most valuable colony of the era until, as part of the wave of independence movements that swept the Americas during the early 19th century. The third era represents the stage of Portuguese colonialism after the decolonization of the Americas of the 1820s. The colonial possessions had been reduced to the African coastline, Portuguese Timor, the disastrous 1890 British Ultimatum led to the contraction of Portuguese ambitions in Africa. Macau was returned to China in 1999, the origin of the Kingdom of Portugal lay in the reconquista, the gradual reconquest of the Iberian peninsula from the Moors. There were several motives for their first attack, on the Marinid Sultanate. In 1415 an attack was made on Ceuta, a strategically located North African Muslim enclave along the Mediterranean Sea, although Ceuta proved to be a disappointment for the Portuguese, the decision was taken to hold it while exploring along the Atlantic African coast. At the time, Europeans did not know what lay beyond Cape Bojador on the African coast, under his sponsorship, soon the Atlantic islands of Madeira and Azores were reached and started to be settled producing wheat to export to Portugal. Fears of what lay beyond Cape Bojador, and whether it was possible to return once it was passed, were assuaged in 1434 when it was rounded by one of Infante Henrys captains, Gil Eanes. Once this psychological barrier had been crossed, it became easier to further along the coast

43.
British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history and, for over a century, was the foremost global power. By 1913, the British Empire held sway over 412 million people, 23% of the population at the time. As a result, its political, legal, linguistic and cultural legacy is widespread, during the Age of Discovery in the 15th and 16th centuries, Portugal and Spain pioneered European exploration of the globe, and in the process established large overseas empires. Envious of the great wealth these empires generated, England, France, the independence of the Thirteen Colonies in North America in 1783 after the American War of Independence caused Britain to lose some of its oldest and most populous colonies. British attention soon turned towards Asia, Africa, and the Pacific, after the defeat of France in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Britain emerged as the principal naval and imperial power of the 19th century. In the early 19th century, the Industrial Revolution began to transform Britain, the British Empire expanded to include India, large parts of Africa and many other territories throughout the world. In Britain, political attitudes favoured free trade and laissez-faire policies, during the 19th Century, Britains population increased at a dramatic rate, accompanied by rapid urbanisation, which caused significant social and economic stresses. To seek new markets and sources of raw materials, the Conservative Party under Benjamin Disraeli launched a period of imperialist expansion in Egypt, South Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand became self-governing dominions. By the start of the 20th century, Germany and the United States had begun to challenge Britains economic lead, subsequent military and economic tensions between Britain and Germany were major causes of the First World War, during which Britain relied heavily upon its empire. The conflict placed enormous strain on the military, financial and manpower resources of Britain, although the British Empire achieved its largest territorial extent immediately after World War I, Britain was no longer the worlds pre-eminent industrial or military power. In the Second World War, Britains colonies in Southeast Asia were occupied by Imperial Japan, despite the final victory of Britain and its allies, the damage to British prestige helped to accelerate the decline of the empire. India, Britains most valuable and populous possession, achieved independence as part of a larger movement in which Britain granted independence to most territories of the empire. The transfer of Hong Kong to China in 1997 marked for many the end of the British Empire, fourteen overseas territories remain under British sovereignty. After independence, many former British colonies joined the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Kingdom is now one of 16 Commonwealth nations, a grouping known informally as the Commonwealth realms, that share a monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. The foundations of the British Empire were laid when England and Scotland were separate kingdoms. In 1496, King Henry VII of England, following the successes of Spain and Portugal in overseas exploration, Cabot led another voyage to the Americas the following year but nothing was ever heard of his ships again

44.
French Colonial Empire
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The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam and Algeria, competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later Britain, France began to establish colonies in North America, the Caribbean, and India in the 17th century. A series of wars with Great Britain and other European major powers during the 18th century, France rebuilt a new empire mostly after 1850, concentrating chiefly in Africa, as well as Indochina and the South Pacific. Republicans, at first hostile to empire, only became supportive when Germany started to build her own colonial empire and it also provided manpower in the World Wars. It became a mission to lift the world up to French standards by bringing Christianity. In 1884 the leading proponent of colonialism, Jules Ferry declared, The higher races have a right over the lower races, full citizenship rights – assimilation – were offered, although in reality assimilation was always receding the colonial populations treated like subjects not citizens. At its apex, it was one of the largest empires in history, including metropolitan France, the total amount of land under French sovereignty reached 11,500,000 km2 in 1920, with a population of 110 million people in 1939. In World War II, Charles de Gaulle and the Free French used the colonies as bases from which they fought to liberate France. However, after 1945 anti-colonial movements began to challenge European authority, the French constitution of October 27,1946, established the French Union which endured until 1958. Newer remnants of the empire were integrated into France as overseas departments. These now total altogether 119,394 km², which amounts to only 1% of the pre-1939 French colonial empires area, by the 1970s, says Robert Aldrich, the last vestiges of empire held little interest for the French. He argues, Except for the decolonization of Algeria, however. During the 16th century, the French colonization of the Americas began, the story of Frances colonial empire truly began on 27 July 1605, with the foundation of Port Royal in the colony of Acadia in North America, in what is now Nova Scotia, Canada. A few years later, in 1608, Samuel De Champlain founded Quebec, which was to become the capital of the enormous, New France had a rather small population, which resulted from more emphasis being placed on the fur trade rather than agricultural settlements. Due to this emphasis, the French relied heavily on creating friendly contacts with the local First Nations community and these became the most enduring alliances between the French and the First Nation community. The French were, however, under pressure from religious orders to them to Catholicism. Through alliances with various Native American tribes, the French were able to exert a loose control over much of the North American continent, areas of French settlement were generally limited to the St. Lawrence River Valley. Prior to the establishment of the 1663 Sovereign Council, the territories of New France were developed as mercantile colonies

45.
Dutch Empire
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The Dutch Empire comprised the overseas colonies, enclaves, and outposts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies and subsequently, the Dutch Republic and the modern Netherlands. This was reflective of the fact that the network of the Dutch Empire was commercial exchange as opposed to sovereignty over a homogeneous landmass. The companies brief domination of global commerce contributed greatly to a commercial revolution, in their search for new trade passages between Asia and Europe Dutch navigators explored and charted vast regions such as New Zealand, Tasmania, and parts of the eastern coast of North America. Shortly after reaching its zenith, the Dutch Empire began to decline as a result of the Anglo-Dutch Wars, in which it lost many of its colonial possessions and trade monopolies to the British Empire. Nevertheless, some portions of the empire survived until the advent of global decolonisation following World War II, namely the East Indies, three former colonial territories—Aruba, Curaçao, and Sint Maarten—are retained as constituent countries within the Netherlands. In 1566, a Protestant Dutch revolt broke out against rule by Roman Catholic Spain, led by William of Orange, independence was declared in the 1581 Act of Abjuration. The revolt resulted in the establishment of an de facto independent Protestant republic in the north by Treaty of Antwerp, the coastal provinces of Holland and Zeeland had for centuries prior to Spanish rule been important hubs of the European maritime trade network. Their geographical location provided convenient access to the markets of France, Scotland, Germany, England, efficient access to capital enabled the Dutch in the 1580s to extend their trade routes beyond northern Europe to new markets in the Mediterranean and the Levant. In the 1590s, Dutch ships began to trade with Brazil and the Dutch Gold Coast of Africa, and towards the Indian Ocean, by attacking Portuguese overseas possessions, the Dutch forced Spain to divert financial and military resources away from its attempt to quell Dutch independence. Thus began the several decade-long Dutch-Portuguese War, in 1594, the Compagnie van Verre was founded in Amsterdam, with the aim of sending two fleets to the spice islands of Maluku. The first fleet sailed in 1596 and returned in 1597 with a cargo of pepper, the second voyage, returned its investors a 400% profit. The success of these led to the founding of a number of companies competing for the trade. The competition was counterproductive to the interests as it threatened to drive up the price of spices at their source in Indonesia whilst driving them down in Europe. As a result of the caused by inter-company rivalry, the Dutch East India Company was founded in 1602. The directors of the company, the Heeren XVII, were given the authority to establish fortresses and strongholds, to sign treaties. The company itself was founded as a joint stock company, similarly to its English rival that had founded two years earlier, the English East India Company. The Spanish-Dutch War was for the Dutch part of their struggle for independence and religious freedom, the Netherlands became part of the domains of the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty when Emperor Charles V divided the holdings of the Habsburg Empire following his abdication in 1555. From 1517, the port of Lisbon in Portugal was the main European market for products from India that was attended by other nations to purchase their needs

46.
Southwestern United States
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The population of the area is around 11 million people, with over half that in Arizona, the most populous cities are Phoenix, El Paso, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Most of the area was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Spanish Empire before becoming part of Mexico and it became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Gadsden Purchase. The deserts dominate the southern and western reaches of the area, the two major rivers of the region are the Colorado River, running in the northern and western areas, and the Rio Grande, running in the south. Formed approximately 8000 years ago, the Chihuahuan Desert is a dry desert. The Chihuahuan Desert spreads across the portion of the region, covering from southeastern Arizona, across southern New Mexico. While it is the second largest desert in the United States, only a third of the desert is within the United States, El Paso is the major city in this desert, with other smaller cities being Las Cruces and Roswell in New Mexico. The Chihuahuan is a rain shadow desert, formed two mountain ranges which block oceanic precipitation from reaching the area. The most prolific plants in this region are agave, yucca and creosote bushes, when people think of the desert southwest, the landscape of the Sonoran Desert is what mostly comes to mind. Rainfall averages between 4–12 inches per year, and the deserts most widely known inhabitant is the saguaro cactus and it is bounded on the northwest by the Mojave Desert, to the north by the Colorado Plateau and to the east by the Arizona Mountains forests and the Chihuahuan Desert. The portion of the Sonora Desert which lies in the Southwestern United States is the most populated area within the region. Six of the top ten major population centers of the region are found within its borders, Phoenix, Tucson, Mesa, Chandler, Glendale, also within its borders are Yuma and Prescott Arizona. The most northwest portion of the American Southwest is covered by the Mojave Desert, bordered on the south by the Sonoran Desert and the east by the Colorado Plateau, its range within the region makes up the southeast tip of Nevada, and the northwestern corner of Arizona. In terms of topography, the Mojave is very similar to the Great Basin Desert, the Mojave is the smallest, driest and hottest desert within the United States. The Mojave gets less than six inches of rain annually, the most prolific vegetation is the tall Joshua tree, which grow as tall as 40 feet, and are thought to live almost 1000 years. Other major vegetation includes the Parry saltbush and the Mojave sage, the Colorado Plateau varies from the large stands of forests in the west, including the largest stand of ponderosa pine trees in the world, to the Mesas to the east. Although not called a desert, the Colorado Plateau is mostly made up of high desert, the Plateau is characterized by a series of plateaus and mesas, interspersed with canyons. The most dramatic example is the Grand Canyon, but that is one of many dramatic vistas included within the Plateau, which includes spectacular lava formations, painted deserts, sand dunes, and badlands. One of the most distinctive features of the Plateau is its longevity, the Plateau can be divided into six sections, three of which fall into the Southwest region

47.
Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most populous municipality in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States, the Miami metropolitan area is Floridas most populous urban area. The city of Tallahassee is the state capital, much of the state is at or near sea level and is characterized by sedimentary soil. The climate varies from subtropical in the north to tropical in the south, the American alligator, American crocodile, Florida panther, and manatee can be found in the Everglades National Park. It was a location of the Seminole Wars against the Native Americans. Today, Florida is distinctive for its large Cuban expatriate community and high population growth, the states economy relies mainly on tourism, agriculture, and transportation, which developed in the late 19th century. Florida is also renowned for amusement parks, orange crops, the Kennedy Space Center, Florida has attracted many writers such as Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Ernest Hemingway and Tennessee Williams, and continues to attract celebrities and athletes. It is internationally known for golf, tennis, auto racing, by the 16th century, the earliest time for which there is a historical record, major Native American groups included the Apalachee, the Timucua, the Ais, the Tocobaga, the Calusa and the Tequesta. Florida was the first part of the continental United States to be visited and settled by Europeans, the earliest known European explorers came with the Spanish conquistador Juan Ponce de León. Ponce de León spotted and landed on the peninsula on April 2,1513 and he named the region La Florida. The story that he was searching for the Fountain of Youth is a myth, in May 1539, Conquistador Hernando de Soto skirted the coast of Florida, searching for a deep harbor to land. He described seeing a wall of red mangroves spread mile after mile, some reaching as high as 70 feet. Very soon, many smokes appeared along the whole coast, billowing against the sky, the Spanish introduced Christianity, cattle, horses, sheep, the Spanish language, and more to Florida. Both the Spanish and French established settlements in Florida, with varying degrees of success, in 1559, Don Tristán de Luna y Arellano established a settlement at present-day Pensacola, making it the first attempted settlement in Florida, but it was abandoned by 1561. Spain maintained tenuous control over the region by converting the tribes to Christianity. The area of Spanish Florida diminished with the establishment of English settlements to the north, the English attacked St. Augustine, burning the city and its cathedral to the ground several times. Florida attracted numerous Africans and African-Americans from adjacent British colonies who sought freedom from slavery, in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano established Fort Gracia Real de Santa Teresa de Mose near St

48.
Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological systems. This unique environmental heritage makes Brazil one of 17 megadiverse countries, Brazil was inhabited by numerous tribal nations prior to the landing in 1500 of explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral, who claimed the area for the Portuguese Empire. Brazil remained a Portuguese colony until 1808, when the capital of the empire was transferred from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, in 1815, the colony was elevated to the rank of kingdom upon the formation of the United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves. Independence was achieved in 1822 with the creation of the Empire of Brazil, a state governed under a constitutional monarchy. The ratification of the first constitution in 1824 led to the formation of a bicameral legislature, the country became a presidential republic in 1889 following a military coup détat. An authoritarian military junta came to power in 1964 and ruled until 1985, Brazils current constitution, formulated in 1988, defines it as a democratic federal republic. The federation is composed of the union of the Federal District, the 26 states, Brazils economy is the worlds ninth-largest by nominal GDP and seventh-largest by GDP as of 2015. A member of the BRICS group, Brazil until 2010 had one of the worlds fastest growing economies, with its economic reforms giving the country new international recognition. Brazils national development bank plays an important role for the economic growth. Brazil is a member of the United Nations, the G20, BRICS, Unasul, Mercosul, Organization of American States, Organization of Ibero-American States, CPLP. Brazil is a power in Latin America and a middle power in international affairs. One of the worlds major breadbaskets, Brazil has been the largest producer of coffee for the last 150 years and it is likely that the word Brazil comes from the Portuguese word for brazilwood, a tree that once grew plentifully along the Brazilian coast. In Portuguese, brazilwood is called pau-brasil, with the word brasil commonly given the etymology red like an ember, formed from Latin brasa and the suffix -il. As brazilwood produces a red dye, it was highly valued by the European cloth industry and was the earliest commercially exploited product from Brazil. The popular appellation eclipsed and eventually supplanted the official Portuguese name, early sailors sometimes also called it the Land of Parrots. In the Guarani language, a language of Paraguay, Brazil is called Pindorama

49.
Thirteen Colonies
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The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States. The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems and they were part of Britains possessions in the New World, which also included colonies in present-day Canada and the Caribbean, as well as East and West Florida. However, the Thirteen Colonies had a degree of self-government and active local elections. In the 1750s, the colonies began collaborating with each other instead of dealing directly with Britain, Colonial decisions were subject to approval by the governor and the home government. There were also substantial populations of African slaves in some of the colonies, especially Virginia, the Carolinas, the names of the colonies were chosen by the founders and proprietors, subject to royal approval, and given in the founding charters. Nine of the thirteen chose to include in their names the term Province of, later residents tended to drop the ambiguous terminology, as in the map shown in the article Province of New Jersey, which is labeled simply East Jersey and West Jersey. In July 1776, they formed a new nation called the United States of America, the new nation achieved that goal by winning the American Revolutionary War with the aid of France, the Netherlands, and Spain. The American flag features thirteen horizontal stripes which represent these original thirteen colonies, besides these thirteen colonies, Britain had another dozen in the New World. Those in the British West Indies, Newfoundland, the Province of Quebec, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Bermuda, and East and West Florida remained loyal to the crown throughout the war. The British crown had recently acquired those lands, and many of the issues facing the Thirteen Colonies did not apply to them, especially in the case of Quebec. Contemporary documents usually list the thirteen colonies of British North America in geographical order, the consolidation collapsed after the Glorious Revolution of 1688–89, and the nine former colonies re-established their separate identities in 1689. Massachusetts Bay Colony Settled in 1630 by Puritans from England, the colonial charter was revoked in 1684, and a new charter was issued in 1691 establishing an enlarged Province of Massachusetts Bay. Province of Maine Settled in 1622, the Massachusetts Bay Colony claimed the Maine territory in the 1650s, then limited to present-day southernmost Maine. Parts of Maine east of the Kennebec River were also part of New York in the half of the 17th century. These areas were made part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691. Plymouth Colony Settled in 1620 by the Pilgrims, plymouth was merged into the Province of Massachusetts Bay in the charter of 1691. Saybrook Colony Founded in 1635 and merged with Connecticut Colony in 1644, New Haven Colony Settled in late 1637. New Netherland Extensive region centered about New Amsterdam at the tip of Manhattan Island

50.
Northwestern United States
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The Northwestern United States is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho—and usually Montana, some sources include southeast Alaska in the Northwest. The related but distinct term Pacific Northwest generally excludes areas from the Rockies eastward, the Northwestern United States is a subportion of the Western United States. In contrast, states included in the regions and Utah are not simultaneously considered part of both regions. Like the southwestern United States, the Northwest definition has moved westward over time, the current area includes the old Oregon Territory. The region is similar to Federal Region X, which comprises Oregon, Washington, Idaho and it is home to over 14.2 million citizens. As the US westward expansion, the western border also shifted westward. In the early years of the United States, newly colonized lands lying immediately west of the Allegheny Mountains were detached from Virginia, during the decades that followed, the Northwest Territory covered much of the Great Lakes region east of the Mississippi River. Together, these states have a population of 14,273,965. The largest cities and metropolitan areas in the Northwest are, Lavender, land of Giants, The Drive to the Pacific Northwest, 1750-1950 online Schwantes, Carlos. The Pacific Northwest, An Interpretive History online Warren, Sidney, farthest Frontier, The Pacific Northwest online Winther, Oscar Osburn

Americas
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The Americas, also collectively called America, encompass the totality of the continents of North America and South America. Together they make up most of the land in Earths western hemisphere, along with their associated islands, they cover 8% of Earths total surface area and 28. 4% of its land area. The topography is dominated by the American Cor

1.
CIA political map of the Americas in Lambert azimuthal equal-area projection

2.
The Americas

3.
Parkin Site, a Mississippian site in Arkansas, circa 1539.

4.
World map of Waldseemüller (Germany, 1507), which first used the name America (in the lower-left section, over South America)

NASA
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President Dwight D. Eisenhower established NASA in 1958 with a distinctly civilian orientation encouraging peaceful applications in space science. The National Aeronautics and Space Act was passed on July 29,1958, disestablishing NASAs predecessor, the new agency became operational on October 1,1958. Since that time, most US space exploration effor

1.
1963 photo showing Dr. William H. Pickering, (center) JPL Director, President John F. Kennedy, (right). NASA Administrator James Webb in background. They are discussing the Mariner program, with a model presented.

2.
Seal of NASA

3.
At launch control for the May 28, 1964, Saturn I SA-6 launch. Wernher von Braun is at center.

4.
Mercury-Atlas 6 launch on February 20, 1962

Spectroradiometer
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Spectroradiometers are devices designed to measure the spectral power distribution of a source. Spectroradiometers typically take measurements of spectral irradiance and spectral radiance and this spectral data can be used to calculate CIE tristimulus values through mathematical integration. CIE chromaticity coordinates and luminosity can then be c

1.
Photomultiplier

2.
Diagram of a Czerny-Turner monochromator.

Terra satellite
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Terra is a multi-national NASA scientific research satellite in a Sun-synchronous orbit around the Earth. It is the flagship of the Earth Observing System, the name Terra comes from the Latin word for Earth. The satellite was launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base on December 18,1999, aboard an Atlas IIAS vehicle and it was placed into a near-pola

1.
Terra (EOS AM-1)

2.
The first image taken by Terra.

3.
The effects of the European winter storms of 2009–2010 on Great Britain, seen from Terra.

4.
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill oil slick as seen from space by NASA 's Terra satellite on May 1, 2010.

Prehistory of the Americas
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For this reason the alternative terms of Precontact Americas, Pre-Colonial Americas or Prehistoric Americas are also in use. In areas of Latin America the term used is Pre-Hispanic. Other civilizations were contemporary with the period and were described in European historical accounts of the time. A few, such as the Maya civilization, had their ow

1.
Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont Heinrich Harder (1858–1935), c.1920. The Lithic peoples or Paleo-Indians are the earliest known settlers of the Americas. The period's name derives from the appearance of " lithic flaked " stone tools.

2.
The Mammut americanum (American mastodon) became extinct around 12,000 to 9,000 years ago due to human-related activities or climate-change. A hybrid of human-related and climate-change has been proposed in recent years. See either Quaternary extinction event or Holocene extinction

3.
Atlatl weights and carved stone gorgets from Poverty Point.

North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Car

1.
Map of North America, from 1621.

2.
North America

3.
The El Castillo pyramid, at Chichén Itzá, Mexico.

4.
Benjamin West 's The Death of General Wolfe (1771) depicting the Battle of the Plains of Abraham.

South America
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South America is a continent located in the western hemisphere, mostly in the southern hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the northern hemisphere. It may also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas, which is the used in nations that speak Romance languages. The reference to South America instead of other regions has increased in t

1.
A composite relief image of South America.

2.
South America

3.
Cuernos del Paine in Chile (left) and Morro do Chapéu in Brazil (right) serve to illustrate the diversity of landscapes in South America. Click to enlarge.

Central America
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Central America is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. Central America is bordered by Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the east, Central America consists of seven countries, Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Cos

1.
Central America, 1798

2.
Central America

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El Chorreron in El Salvador

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One of the hanging bridges of the skywalk at the Monteverde Cloud Forest Reserve in Monteverde, Costa Rica disappearing into the clouds

Caribbean
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The Caribbean is a region that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands and the surrounding coasts. The region is southeast of the Gulf of Mexico and the North American mainland, east of Central America, situated largely on the Caribbean Plate, the region comprises more than 700 islands, islets, reefs and cays. These islands generally form island

1.
Cayo de Agua in Los Roques archipelago, Venezuela.

2.
Caribbean

3.
Puerto Rico 's south shore, from the mountains of Jayuya

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Puerto Cruz beach in Margarita Island, Venezuela

Ice Age
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An ice age is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of Earths surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Within a long-term ice age, individual pulses of cold climate are termed glacial periods, in the terminology of glaciology, ice age implies the presence of

4.
Scandinavia exhibits some of the typical effects of ice age glaciation such as fjords and lakes.

Old World
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The Old World consists of Africa, Europe, and Asia, regarded collectively as the part of the world known to Europeans before contact with the Americas. It is used in the context of, and contrast with and these regions were connected via the Silk Road trade route, and they have a pronounced Iron Age period following the Bronze Age. The concept of th

1.
Map of the "Old World" (the Ptolemy world map in a 15th-century copy)

Voyages of Christopher Columbus
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For a very long time, it was believed that Columbus and his crew had been the first Europeans to make landfall in the Americas. Columbus was an Italian–born navigator sailing for the Crown of Castile in search of a route to Asia, to access the sources of spices. This led to the discovery of a New World between Europe and Asia, Columbuss voyages led

1.
The Virgin of the Navigators by Alejo Fernández, the earliest known painting about the discovery of the Americas, 1531–36.

2.
The four voyages of Columbus

3.
Columbus and Queen Isabella. Detail of the Columbus monument in Madrid (1885).

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The "Columbus map" was drawn circa 1490 in the workshop of Bartolomeo and Christopher Columbus in Lisbon.

Indigenous peoples of the Americas
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The indigenous peoples of the Americas are the pre-Columbian peoples of the Americas and their descendants. The term Amerindian is used in Quebec, the Guianas, Indigenous peoples of the United States are commonly known as Native Americans or American Indians, and Alaska Natives. Application of the term Indian originated with Christopher Columbus, w

Paleo-Indians
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The prefix paleo- comes from the Greek adjective palaios, meaning old or ancient. The term Paleo-Indians applies specifically to the period in the Western Hemisphere and is distinct from the term Paleolithic. Evidence suggests big-animal hunters crossed the Bering Strait from Eurasia into North America over a land and ice bridge, small isolated gro

1.
Paleo-Indians hunting a glyptodont Heinrich Harder (1858–1935), c.1920. The Lithic peoples or Paleo-Indians are the earliest known settlers of the Americas. The period's name derives from the appearance of " lithic flaked " stone tools.

2.
The Mammut americanum (American mastodon) became extinct around 12,000 to 9,000 years ago due to human-related activities or climate-change. A hybrid of human-related and climate-change has been proposed in recent years. See either Quaternary extinction event or Holocene extinction

3.
Atlatl weights and carved stone gorgets from Poverty Point.

Hunter-gatherer
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A hunter-gatherer is a human living in a society in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, in contrast to agricultural societies, which rely mainly on domesticated species. Hunting and gathering was humanitys first and most successful adaptation, occupying at least 90 percent of human history, following the invention of agriculture, hunter

1.
A San man from Namibia. The San still live full-time the traditional way, as hunter-gatherers.

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A 19th century engraving of an Indigenous Australian encampment.

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A Shoshone encampment in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming, photographed by Percy Jackson, 1870

Beringia
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It includes the Chukchi Sea, the Bering Sea, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi and Kamchatka Peninsulas in Russia as well as Alaska in the United States. The area includes land lying on the North American Plate and Siberian land east of the Chersky Range. Today, the land that is visible from the central part of the Bering land bridge are the Diomede I

1.
Beringia area coverage

2.
"Bering land bridge" redirects here. For the proposed series of artificial bridges across the Bering Strait, see Bering Strait crossing.

3.
genetic settlement of Beringia

Bering Strait
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The Bering Strait is a strait of the Pacific, which borders with the Arctic to north. It is located between Russia and the United States, named after Vitus Bering, a Danish-born explorer in the service of the Russian Empire, it lies slightly south of the Arctic Circle being at about 65°40 N latitude. The present Russia-US east-west boundary is at 1

Lithic stage
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The term lithic stage refers to the cultures of the post-glacial hunters and collectors in South America. The stage derived its name from the first appearance of Lithic flaked stone tools, throughout South America, there are stone tool traditions of the lithic stage, such as the fluted fishtail that reflect localized adaptations to the diverse habi

1.
Stemmed fluted "Fishtail" point

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Archaeological sites

Megafauna
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In terrestrial zoology, megafauna are large or giant animals. The most common thresholds used are weight over 40 kilograms, over 44 kilograms and this includes many species not popularly thought of as overly large, such as white-tailed deer, red kangaroo, and humans. In practice, the most common encountered in academic and popular writing describes

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The African bush elephant, Earth's largest living land animal

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Rhinoceros, from Dürer's woodcut

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Some Paleozoic sea scorpions (Eurypterus shown) were larger than a man.

Iroquois
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The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy. The Iroquois have absorbed many other peoples into their cultures as a result of warfare, adoption of captives, the historic Erie, Susquehannock, Wyandot, and St. Lawrence Iroquoians, all independent peoples, spoke Iroquoian languages. In 2010, more tha

1.
Meeting of Hiawatha and Deganawidah by Sanford Plummer

3.
Engraving based on a drawing by Champlain of his 1609 voyage. It depicts a battle between Iroquois and Algonquian tribes near Lake Champlain

4.
Iroquois conquests 1638–1711

Civilization
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Historically, a civilization was a so-called advanced culture in contrast to more supposedly primitive cultures. As an uncountable noun, civilization also refers to the process of a society developing into a centralized, urbanized, stratified structure, Civilization concentrates power, extending human control over the rest of nature, including over

1.
Ancient Egypt is a canonical example of an early culture considered a civilization.

2.
"No one in the history of civilization has shaped our understanding of science and natural philosophy more than the great Greek philosopher and scientist Aristotle (384–322 B.C.), who exerted a profound and pervasive influence for more than two thousand years" —Gary B. Ferngren

Norte Chico civilization
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The Norte Chico civilization was a complex pre-Columbian era society that included as many as 30 major population centers in what is now the Norte Chico region of north-central coastal Peru. The civilization flourished between the fourth and second millennia BC, with the formation of the first city generally dated to around 3500 BC, at Huaricanga,

1.
Caral panorama.

2.
Remains of platform mound structures at Caral.

Cahokia
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The Cahokia Mounds State Historic Site /kəˈhoʊkiə/ is the site of a pre-Columbian Native American city directly across the Mississippi River from modern St. Louis, Missouri. This historic park lies in southern Illinois between East St. Louis and Collinsville, the park covers 2,200 acres, or about 3.5 square miles, and contains about 80 mounds, but

1.
Monks Mound, the largest earthen structure at Cahokia (for scale, an adult is standing on top)

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A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures. Cahokia is located near the center of this map in the upper part of the Middle Mississippi area

3.
Tamarois et Caouquias appears on a map of Illinois in 1718 south of the confluence of the Illinois and Mississippi rivers (approximate modern state area highlighted) from Carte de la Louisiane et du Cours du Mississipi by Guillaume de L'Isle.

4.
An 1887 illustration of Monks Mound showing it with fanciful proportions.

Zapotec civilization
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The Zapotec civilization was an indigenous pre-Columbian civilization that flourished in the Valley of Oaxaca in Mesoamerica. Archaeological evidence shows that their culture goes back at least 2,500 years, the Zapotec left archaeological evidence at the ancient city of Monte Albán in the form of buildings, ball courts, magnificent tombs and grave

1.
Palace of Columns, Mitla, Oaxaca

2.
Zapotec at greatest extent

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A funerary urn in the shape of a "bat god" or a jaguar, from Oaxaca, dated to AD 300–650. Height: 9.5 in (23 cm).

4.
Looking over the site of Monte Alban. Situated on a mountaintop, Monte Alban overlooks much of the Valley of Oaxaca.

Toltec
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The Toltec culture is an archaeological Mesoamerican culture that dominated a state centered in Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico in the early post-classic period of Mesoamerican chronology. The Aztec oral and pictographic tradition also described the history of the Toltec Empire, giving lists of rulers, among modern scholars it is a matter of debate whether t

1.
An expressive orange-ware clay vessel in the Toltec style, from the American Museum of Natural History collection.

Olmec
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The Olmecs were the first major civilization in Guatemala and Mexico following a progressive development in Soconusco and modern southwestern pacific lowlands of Guatemala. They lived in the lowlands of south-central Mexico, in the present-day states of Veracruz. It has been speculated that Olmec derive in part from neighboring Mokaya and/or Mixe–Z

1.
Olmec Head No. 3 from San Lorenzo Tenochtitlan 1200–900 BCE

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" The Wrestler ", an Olmec era statuette, 1400–400 BCE

3.
Olmec jadeite mask 1000–600 BCE

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Great pyramid in La Venta, Tabasco

Maya civilization
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The Maya civilization developed in an area that encompasses southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize, and the western portions of Honduras and El Salvador. The Archaic period, prior to 2000 BC, saw the first developments in agriculture, the first Maya cities developed around 750 BC, and by 500 BC these cities possessed monumental architectu

1.
El Castillo, at Chichen Itza

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Detail of Lintel 26 from Yaxchilan

3.
Maya civilization

4.
Kaminaljuyu, in the highlands, and El Mirador, in the lowlands, were both important cities in the Late Preclassic.

Aztec
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The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica from the 14th to 16th centuries. The Nahuatl words aztecatl and aztecah mean people from Aztlan, a place for the Nahuatl-speaking culture of the time. Often the term Aztec refers exclus

1.
The Aztec Pyramid at St. Cecilia Acatitlan, State of Mexico

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Aztec wood mask

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Large ceramic statue of an Aztec Eagle Warrior

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Aztec cosmogram in the pre-Hispanic Codex Fejérváry-Mayer —the fire god Xiuhtecuhtli is in the center

Chimor
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Chimor was the political grouping of the Chimú culture that ruled the northern coast of Peru beginning around 850 and ending around 1470. Chimor was the largest kingdom in the Late Intermediate period, encompassing 1,000 kilometres of coastline, the greatest surviving ruin of this civilization is the city of Chan Chan located 4 kilometres northwest

1.
Chimu Piece, Imperial Epoch, 1300–1532 Larco Museum Collection

Mixtec
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The Mixtec region and the Mixtec peoples are traditionally divided into three groups, two based on their original economic caste and one based on the region they settled. High Mixtecs or mixteco alto were of the class and generally richer. In recent times, a reversal or equalizing has been seen. The third group is Coastal Mixtecs mixteco de la cost

1.
Turquoise mosaic mask. Mixtec-Aztec, 1400-1521 AD

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Mixtec king and warlord Eight Deer Jaguar Claw (right) Meeting with Four Jaguar, in a depiction from the precolumbian Codex Zouche-Nuttall.

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Plate 37 of the Codex Vindobonensis. The central scene is supposedly the origin of Mixtecs from a tree that begat the ancestors of this people.

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The stucco reliefs in the Tomb 1 of Zaachila (The Valley, Oaxaca) reveal a remarkable influence from Mixtec art. It is likely that the tomb belongs to a person whose name is registered in the Nuttall Codex. Tomb 1 of Zaachila, Central Valleys of Oaxaca, Late Postclassic.

Moche (culture)
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The Moche civilization flourished in northern Peru with its capital near present-day Moche, Trujillo, Peru from about 100 to 800 during the Regional Development Epoch. While this issue is the subject of debate, many scholars contend that the Moche were not politically organized as a monolithic empire or state. Rather, they were likely a group of au

1.
Huaca del Sol (Temple of the Sun), Mochica cultural capital, 4 km south of the modern city of Trujillo

2.
A map of Moche cultural influence.

3.
Moche portrait vessel, Musée du quai Branly in Paris

4.
Resting deer, Larco Museum Collection

Mississippian culture
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The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American civilization archeologists date from approximately 800 CE to 1600 CE, varying regionally. It was composed of a series of settlements and satellite villages linked together by a loose trading network. The Mississippian way of life began to develop in the Mississippi River Valley, culture

1.
A map showing approximate areas of various Mississippian and related cultures.

2.
A Mississippian priest, with a ceremonial flint mace and severed head, image by Herb Roe, based on a repoussé copper plate

Puebloan
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The Pueblo peoples speak languages from several different groups and are also divided culturally by their kinship systems and agricultural practices, although all cultivate varieties of corn. In addition to differing kinship systems, the peoples have differing marriage practices and those who have a matrilineal system, in which children are conside

1.
Laguna Pueblo dwellers

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Taos Pueblo, circa 1920

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Sculptor Cliff Fragua. Unveiling and Dedication of the Popé statue in the Capitol in Washington DC, September 2005.

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A Zuni drying platform for maize and other foods, with two women crafting pottery beneath it. From the Panama-California Exposition, San Diego, California. January 1915.

Totonac
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The Totonac /ˈtoʊtoʊˌnɑːk/ people resided in the eastern coastal and mountainous regions of Mexico at the time of the Spanish arrival in 1519. Today they reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and they are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán. Until the mid-19th centur

1.
Totonacs of Papantla, Veracruz performing the " voladores " ritual

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View of the main square of the ruins of the city of Cempoala, capital Totonaca Nation, the first to establish a military alliance with the Castilian armies to attack the dominions of Aztec Triple Alliance or Ēxcān Tlahtolōyān.

3.
Ceramic.

Teotihuacan
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Additionally, Teotihuacan exported fine obsidian tools that garnered high prestige and widespread usage throughout Mesoamerica. The city is thought to have been established around 100 BC, the city may have lasted until sometime between the 7th and 8th centuries AD, but its major monuments were sacked and systematically burned around 550 AD. Teotihu

1.
View of the Avenue of the Dead and the Pyramid of the Sun, from the Pyramid of the Moon.

2.
Teotihuacan

3.
The view from the Pyramid of the Sun

4.
Platform along the Avenue of the Dead showing the talud-tablero architectural style

Huastec people
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The ancient Huastec civilization is one of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerican cultures. The Pre-Columbian Huastecs constructed temples on step-pyramids, carved independently standing sculptures and they were admired for their abilities as musicians by other Mesoamerican peoples. The Huastecs were conquered by the Spanish between 1519 and the 1530s, aft

1.
Huastec stone sculpture – AMNH

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Replica of statue located in Metro Bellas Artes in Mexico City. The accompanying plaque translates to "MASCULINE FIGURE – Huasteca Culture – Early Post Classic – Description: From Naranjo, Veracruz. Possible representation of Quetzalcoatl wearing a conical cap with a skull in front and long earflaps, characteristic elements of the Huastec."

3.
Huastec statue from the Tampico Region, 14th–16th centuries

4.
Approximate routes and dates of the proto-Huastec and other Maya-speaking groups

Izapa
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Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas, it was occupied during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, near the base of the Tacaná volcano, the settlement at Izapa extended over 1.4 miles, making it the largest site in Chiapas. Iz

1.
View of the ruins of Izapa

2.
Soft greenstone figurine from Izapa, 300 BCE - 250 CE.

3.
Tacana volcano as seen from Izapa to the north

4.
Stela 2 from Izapa

Mazatec people
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The meaning of Mazatec translates to people of the deer, derived from the Nahuatl word Mazatl meaning deer. The Mazatecan languages are part of the Popolocan family which, in turn, is part of the Otomanguean language family, the Mazatecs religion represents a syncretism of traditional beliefs with Christian beliefs brought by the Spanish conquistad

1.
Mazatec girls performing a dance in Huautla de Jimenez

Muisca people
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The Muisca are the Chibcha-speaking people that formed the Muisca Confederation of the central Andean highlands of present-day Colombias Eastern Range, in particular the Altiplano Cundiboyacense. As one out of four advanced civilizations of the Americas, they were encountered by the Spanish Empire in 1537 and it bordered the territories of the Panc

1.
Muisca raft (1200–1500 CE), representation of the initiation of the new Zipa in the lake of Guatavita

2.
Muisca people.

3.
Ruins of an ancient Muisca temple at El Infiernito (the little hell) near Villa de Leyva

4.
Monument to Bochica in the town of Cuitiva (Boyacá).

Inca
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The Inca Empire, also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire, was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America, and possibly the largest empire in the world in the early 16th century. The administrative, political and military center of the empire was located in Cusco in modern-day Peru, the Inca civilization arose from the highlands of Peru

1.
Inca Empire

2.
Banner of the Tawantinsuyu

3.
The first image of the Inca in Europe, Pedro Cieza de León, Cronica del Peru, 1553

4.
View of Machu Picchu

Spanish Empire
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The Spanish Empire was one of the largest empires in history. The Spanish Empire became the foremost global power of its time and was the first to be called the empire on which the sun never sets, the Spanish Empire originated during the Age of Discovery after the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Following the Spanish–American War of 1898, Spain ce

1.
Columbus and the Catholic Monarchs (The return of Columbus to Spain).

2.
Flag

3.
The death of French general Gaston de Foix at the Battle of Ravenna (1512).

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Upon the death of Ferdinand the Catholic, the lordship of the Spanish Indies became Kingdoms of the Indies.

Portuguese Empire
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The Portuguese Empire, also known as the Portuguese Overseas, was one of the largest and longest-lived empires in world history and the first colonial empire. It existed for almost six centuries from the capture of Ceuta in 1415 to the grant of sovereignty to East Timor in 2002, the first era of the Portuguese empire originated at the beginning of

1.
The Conquest of Ceuta, in 1415, was led by Henry the Navigator, and initiated the Portuguese Empire.

2.
Map of Western Africa by Lázaro Luis (1563). The large castle in West Africa represents the São Jorge da Mina (Elmina castle).

3.
Vasco da Gama 's departure to India, in 1497

British Empire
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The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It originated with the possessions and trading posts established by England between the late 16th and early 18th centuries. At its height, it was the largest empire in history an

1.
A replica of The Matthew, John Cabot 's ship used for his second voyage to the New World.

2.
Flag

3.
African slaves working in 17th-century Virginia, by an unknown artist, 1670.

4.
Fort St. George was founded at Madras in 1639.

French Colonial Empire
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The French colonial empire constituted the overseas colonies, protectorates and mandate territories that came under French rule from the 16th century onward. The second empire came to an end after the loss of bitter wars in Vietnam and Algeria, competing with Spain, Portugal, the United Provinces, and later Britain, France began to establish coloni

1.
French Northern America was known as 'Nouvelle France' or New France

Dutch Empire
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The Dutch Empire comprised the overseas colonies, enclaves, and outposts controlled and administered by Dutch chartered companies and subsequently, the Dutch Republic and the modern Netherlands. This was reflective of the fact that the network of the Dutch Empire was commercial exchange as opposed to sovereignty over a homogeneous landmass. The com

1.
Dutch imperial imagery representing the Dutch East Indies dated 1916. The subscription says: The most valuable jewelry of the Netherlands

2.
Flag

3.
The formal declaration of independence of the Dutch provinces from the Spanish king, Philip II

4.
São Luís, Maranhão, 17th century

Southwestern United States
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The population of the area is around 11 million people, with over half that in Arizona, the most populous cities are Phoenix, El Paso, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, and Tucson. Most of the area was part of the Viceroyalty of New Spain in the Spanish Empire before becoming part of Mexico and it became part of the United States through the Treaty of Guadal

1.
Panoramic view of the southwestern United States.

2.
Approximate map of the Southwestern U.S. using the definition of Reed, Meinig, and others.

3.
Saguaro cactus in the Sonoran Desert

4.
The Delicate Arch at Arches National Park

Florida
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Florida /ˈflɒrᵻdə/ is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, Florida is the 22nd-most extensive, the 3rd-most populous, and the 8th-most densely populated of the U. S. states. Jacksonville is the most p

1.
St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S., established in 1565 by Spain.

2.
Flag

3.
Aerial view of Castillo De San Marcos (Florida).

4.
The five flags of Florida from the right, Spain (1565–1763), the Kingdom of Great Britain, Spain (1784–1821), the Confederacy, and the United States. France (flag not shown) also controlled part of Florida.

Brazil
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Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. As the worlds fifth-largest country by area and population, it is the largest country to have Portuguese as an official language. Its Amazon River basin includes a vast tropical forest, home to wildlife, a variety of ecological syst

1.
Megaliths in the Solstice Archaeological Park, in Amapá, erected between 500 and 2000 years ago, probably to carry out astronomical observations.

2.
Flag

3.
Representation of the landing of Pedro Álvares Cabral in Porto Seguro, 1500.

4.
Painting showing the arrest of Tiradentes; he was sentenced to death for his involvement in the best known movement for independence in Colonial Brazil.

Thirteen Colonies
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The Thirteen Colonies were a group of British colonies on the east coast of North America founded in the 17th and 18th centuries that declared independence in 1776 and formed the United States. The Thirteen Colonies had very similar political, constitutional, and legal systems and they were part of Britains possessions in the New World, which also

1.
Join, or Die by Benjamin Franklin was recycled to encourage the former colonies to unite against British rule.

2.
Map of the thirteen original colonies as published for the US Centennial in 1876

Northwestern United States
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The Northwestern United States is an informal geographic region of the United States. The region consistently includes the states of Oregon, Washington, and Idaho—and usually Montana, some sources include southeast Alaska in the Northwest. The related but distinct term Pacific Northwest generally excludes areas from the Rockies eastward, the Northw

1.
Seattle, the largest metropolitan area in the Northwest

2.
The dark red states are almost always included, while the striped states are usually considered part of the Northwestern United States as well.

1.
The opening to the Old English epic poem Beowulf, handwritten in half-uncial script: Hƿæt ƿē Gārde/na ingēar dagum þēod cyninga / þrym ge frunon... "Listen! We of the Spear-Danes from days of yore have heard of the glory of the folk-kings..."

2.
The Castillo, Chichen Itza, Mexico, ca. 800-900 CE. A temple to Kukulkan sits atop this pyramid with a total of 365 stairs on its four sides. At the winter and summer equinoxes, the sun casts a shadow in the shape of a serpent along the northern staircase.

1.
A reconstruction of Homo erectus. Anthropologists believe that H. erectus was the first hominid to control fire (reconstruction shown in Westfälisches Landesmuseum, Herne, Germany, in a 2006 exhibition).

1.
Sheep on the beach in North Ronaldsay. In the winter, these sheep eat seaweed, which has a higher δ 13 C content than grass; samples from these sheep have a δ 13 C value of about −13‰, which is much higher than for sheep that feed on grasses.

2.
Simplified version of the carbon exchange reservoir, showing proportions of carbon and relative activity of the 14 C in each reservoir

3.
Measuring 14 C is now most commonly done with an accelerator mass spectrometer

4.
The stump of a very old bristlecone pine. Tree rings from these trees (among others) are used in building calibration curves.